''The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy'' is a book about cosmology,

philosophy of time Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

and scientific naturalism by the American theoretical physicist

Lee Smolin Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo, and a member of the graduate faculty of th ...

and the Brazilian philosopher

Roberto Mangabeira Unger Roberto Mangabeira Unger (; ; born 24 March 1947) is a Brazilian philosopher and politician. His work is in the tradition of Western philosophy and classical social theory, and is developed across fields in legal theory, philosophy and religion, ...

. The authors argue that the current crisis in cosmology is a result of physicists making the wrong commitments to universalizing local experiments and to a block universe. They suggest instead that new research projects would be revealed if we took seriously the idea of one, and only one, universe as well as the reality of our experience of time. This new paradigm, they say, would also give rise to the revolutionary notion that the laws of nature might not be immutable. The book was initially published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

on December 8, 2014.

Synopsis

The book discusses a number of

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and physical ideas on the true role of time in the Universe. The text is roughly divided into two halves, the first one written by Unger, and the second by Smolin, both developing the same themes in different ways, with Smolin being more focused on the physics.

Reviews

—''The Guardian'' —

Peter Woit Peter Woit (; born September 11, 1957) is a Latvian-American mathematician who works in twistor theory. He works in the mathematics department at Columbia University. Woit, a critic of string theory, has published a book ''Not Even Wrong'' (2006 ...

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Singular Universe and the Reality of Time 2014 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Books by Lee Smolin Books by Roberto Mangabeira Unger Contemporary philosophical literature Cosmology books English-language non-fiction books Philosophy of time Popular physics books Cambridge University Press books

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