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There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World
Maybe someday
49
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
54/100Critics
44/100Scholars
Author:
Carlo Rovelli
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Date:
May 10, 2022
These essays range widely across time and space: from Newton's alchemy to Einstein's mistakes, from Nabokovâs lepidopterology to Danteâs cosmology, from mind-altering psychedelic substances to the meaning of atheism, from the future of physics to the power of uncertainty. From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time.
What The Reviewers Say
Beautifully translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness continues a tradition of jargon-free popular scientific writing from Galileo to Darwin that disappeared in the academic specialization of the last century.
... a series of finely wrought essays that draw on an impressive hinterland of cultural and scientific learning.
... provocative.
While exhibiting his concise prose and easy erudition, this one lacks the sense of unity of previous works. Such is often the nature of collections of previously published pieces, yet even in that context, the text is scattershot. Intermixed with the author’s trademark astute scientific and philosophical writing are reminiscences, travelogues, and opinion pieces, some of which are mere filler. Even some of the science writing doesn’t hold up. But at his best—and there are plenty of sections that spotlight his best—Rovelli delights. His facility with science and philosophy is exemplary.
