Product Description

As a writer for SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, John Horgan has an unsurpassed window on contemporary science, routinely interviewing the scientific geniuses of our times, scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Hawking, Karl Popper and Noam Chomsky. In THE END OF SCIENCE, Horgan displays his genius for getting these larger-than-life figures to be human, whilst also encouraging them to confront the very limits of knowledge. Have the big questions all been answered? Has all the knowledge worth pursuing become known? Will there be a final 'theory of everything' that signals the end? Horgan extracts surprisingly candid answers to these and other delicate questions as he discusses God, Star Trek, superstrings, quarks, consciousness and numerous other topics. In a time where scientific rationality is under fire from every quarter, THE END OF SCIENCE is a witty, thoughtful, profound and entertaining narrative which serves as both a critique of and a homage to modern science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177385 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 324 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a series of interviews with luminaries of modern science, Scientific American senior editor John Horgan conducts a guided tour of the scientific world and where it might be headed in The End of Science. The book, which generated great controversy and became a bestseller, now appears in paperback with a new afterword by the author. Through a series of essays in which he visits with such figures as Roger Penrose, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson and others, Horgan captures the distinct personalities of his subjects while investigating whether science may indeed be reaching its end. While this book is in no way dumbed down, it is accessible and can take the general reader to the outer edges of scientific exploration.

Review
'A fine example of popular science writing. Accessible, argumentative, stimulating, informative, highly polished and hugely enjoyable ... this is a feast of a book' TES 'I wish I could write like John Horgan ... [he] has a novelist's eye for character revealing detail, and we can almost see, as well as hear these scientists engaging in their passionate arguments.' NEW SCIENTIST 'Horgan covers a stunning set of thinkers, with whom he discusses a remarkable range of scientific ideas' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A hugely entertaining book, certain to create controversy.' E.O Wilson 'Horgan certainly puts the argument skillfully enough to provoke reaction. You could learn a lot about where science is going.' GUARDIAN 'we all owe a debt to Horgan for giving us a more realistic picture of the ways as well as the thoughts of some of the great minds of science.' FOCUS 'gives memorable and serious glimpses into the winding-down worlds of physics, quantum mechanics and molecular biology.' LITERARY REVIEW 'Horgan weaves a skilful and often entertaining portraits of his star-studded cast, explaining the science succinctly and accessibly in the process.' IRISH TIMES 'John Horgan buttonholes the most interesting scientists on the planet- and he listens, he argues, he thinks. He has an exceedingly accurate instinct... it's a privilege to be able to follow along as he peers behind the curtain.' James Gleick, author of CHAOS 'Intellectually bracing... often brilliant... makes the powerful case that the best and most exciting scientific discoveries are behind us... a wonderfully concise introduction to the greatest scientific hits of the last 15 or 20 years... Mr Horgan is a master thumbnail artists, introducing every character with a few phrases that capture the person's appearance and temprament with dead-on-wit... impressive and entertaining.' THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Horgan's talent is for translating scientific jargon into colloquial terms without condescending the reader... there are some genuinely funny moments.' CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'A wonderful, provocative book.' WASHINGTON POST 'One of the most appealing aspects of Horgan's books is its sheer entertainment value. The go-for-the-jugular writing style, coupled with the fact that just about everyone who's anyone in the scientific world has been subjected to one of Horgan's interviews, gives the reader an opportunity to see world-class scientists as "demigods on stilts"... the book is amusing and the issues it raises are of great importance.' John L. Casti, NATURE 'Fun to read in spite of its grim subject matter. Horgan writes gracefully and well, and he seems to have interviewed everyone who's anyone among the deep thinkers.' SCIENCE 'For readers who like ambitious, big-idea books... very clever... Horgan exhibits a fine, good humoured, writerly appreciation for the distinctive cadences of language, personal habits, physical traits and towering egos of each prestigious interviewee. While the book's legitimacy derives from its reasoned case that science is winding down, its greatest pleasures flow from Horgan's encounters with the characters who have made science their lives, and whose lives have largely made contemporary science what it is.' SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 'Thanks to Mr Horgan's smooth prose style, puckish sense of humour and wicked eye for details, these encounters [with the scientists] make for zesty roading. Frequently, they are hilarious... a thumping good book.' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'A fascinating thesis, and one Horgan buttresses with arguments from history and philosophy as well as science... provocative.' NEWSWEEK 'A compelling tale... A deft wordsmith and keen observer, Horgan offers lucid expositions of everything from the supersting theory and Thomas Kuhn's analysis of scientific revolutions to the origin of life.' BUSINESS WEEK 'Provocative and passionate... Horgan strikes at the heart of civilisation as we know it... Horgan's audacious book, rather than merely serving to treatise on the demise of science, may, in fact, open the door to a more important dimension of inquiry for all of us.' THE HERALD 'As good a case as can be made that just as we discovered the globe only once... so we have already discovered the basic laws of physics, biology, cosmology and so on... fascinating.' WIRED 'To make this argument, Horgan gives us a tour through the minds, offices and sometimes sitting rooms of eminent scientists he has interviewed over the years. He does this with an irreverance that is bracing... what higher praise can you pay to a book than that you loved it, even though you thought its central thesis was wrong?' TORONTO GLOBE 'Provocative, entertaining, cheeky... Horgan's book, a condensation of profiles of scientists he has written during his ten years at SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is a fascinating, engaging survey of bright minds and brilliant ideas.' THE SEATTLE TIMES 'Brilliant.' NEW YORK TIMES 'Agree with him or not, readers will find his ideas provocative and engaging.' SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER AND CHRONICLE 'THE END OF SCIENCE... gives memorable and serious glimpses into the winding-down worlds of physics, quantum mechanics and molecular biology.' LITERARY REVIEW 'In a series of interviews with luminaries of modern science, Scientific American senior editor John Horgan conducts a guided tour of the scientific world and where it might be headed in The End of Science. The book, which generated great controversy and became a bestseller, now appears in paperback with a new afterword by the author. Through a series of essays in which he visits with such figures as Roger Penrose, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson and others, Horgan captures the distinct personalities of his subjects while investigating whether science may indeed be reaching its end. While this book is in no way dumbed down, it is accessible and can take the general reader to the outer edges of scientific exploration.' AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

NEW STATESMAN
'I wish I could write like John Horgan ... a joy to read'

Customer Reviews

After the end, then what?
I would have preferred to have heard more from the scientists. Verbatim transcripts of Horgan's interviews with these major scientists would have been welcome - instead of descriptions by Horgan of the scientists' appearances and manners, and lots of paraphrasing of what they had to say. It is remarkable how many great scientists Horgan has had the opporunity to speak with in serious dialogue.

No behaviorist is interviewed. Horgan says Nohm Chomky's book "Syntatic Structures" helped to "rout behaviorism once and for all..." Skinner's own book on language, "Verbal Behavior" didn't assume an innate and rather complete grammatical ability, but speculated how operant conditioning might help in explaining language acquisition. Chomsky reviewed that book...with a vicious attack. Skinner never replied and some saw that as a win for Chomsky. Years later Skinner revealed that when he began to read Chomsky's review, he felt it so serverely misunderstood what Skinner was doing that he never bothered to finish it or reply.

Was behaviorism routed once and for all? In a March 2004 article, Roddy Roediger, president of the American Psychological Society and himself a cognitive psychologist, in the APS's Observer entitled "What Happened to Behaviorism", writes of Chomsky's review of Skinner that it is "rather effectively refuted in a commentary by Kenneth MacCorquodale". Roediger goes on in that article to note the ongoing contributions of behaviorism.

Why couldn't "Syntactic Structures" help to rout behaviorism? The behaviorist William Baum says it plainly in his book "Understanding Behaviorism": "No matter how precise...a grammar tells us nothing about how and why people come to say the things they do. Once we recognize that speaking and writing are forms of operant behavior, we can begin to explain them."

Horgan may also have avoided including a behaviorist among his interviewees because behaviorists, although very mindful of limits, are making constructive progress: they're not focusing on any end to their science. Behaviorism has proven effective in helping with autism. Skinner's own appeal in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" suggested consideration of major ways of improving our social organizations.

What if we've reached the "end of science"? There are still huge environment and social problems to be adressed, problems which I didn't see Horgan addressing. Instead, he devotes his epilogue to a mystical experience that led him to consider whether God is chewing his fingernails! Even if we've reached the end of science, there is much to do, so I'd suggest you instead read B.F. Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity". Behaviorism was hardly routed and, in learning how we can carry on in the difficult years ahead, you may well find Skinner a more constructive read than Horgan. Unless, like Horgan, you find the question of whether God chews his fingernails more engaging.

I would hope Horgan would give Radical Behaviorism a second look and, if he remains opposed to it, state just how it is that he (Horgan) and not Chomsky understands Radical Behaviorism to have failed.

P.S. I have learned that Horgan has a more recent book "Rational Mysticism" and other more recent writings. Although he is decidedly a science writer, at least his work since "End of Science" on mysticism impresses me a great deal for willingness to challenge authorities and general honesty. It may seem like an entirely different kind of thing than what he is dealing with in "The End of Science" but if mysticism [ and the problems with some forms of mysticism] intrigue you, I recommend Horgan for that.

disturbing
Horgan obviously belongs with those blind "visionaries" who proclaimed the end of science at the end of the 19th century - pure hogwash!

Dreams of a final arbiter?
There's much to learn from this book. Horgan's Grand Tour of scientists' homes, their laboratories and conferences, including personal histories and researchers' theories is comprehensive. You will learn ideas in physics, cosmology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology - in short, nearly every aspect of basic science comes under his scrutiny and assessment. A wide-ranging book in time and topics, it is almost possible to read it selectively. Major personalities in every field have their work, publications and personalities examined, revealed and commented on. In short, Horgan takes an Olympian stance on nearly all science.

As much as he tries to teach us, you come away with only one conclusion. John Horgan is the sole arbiter of the worth of science being undertaken today. And science, as an enterprise, is through - in his eyes. Horgan's theme is that empirical research has achieved its limits. Particle physics is delving so deeply into the atom that evidence can no longer be discerned, only inferred. Biology has no grand pronouncements pending about life. Even cognitive science, perhaps one of the fastest growing areas of research, foresees no "breakthrough". All future science, he contends, will be but picking out niggling details that reinforce the great conceptions of Copernicus, Darwin and Einstein. Science, he argues, has gone from empirical to "ironic". It is no longer grandiose, but petty and "not converging on the truth".

Horgan struggles to bring lofty scientific figures into your lounge room. He visits Karl Popper, Richard Dawkins, Francis Crick and countless [but not nameless] others. Dress and grooming are carefully scrutinised. I lost track of the number of "khaki pants" his victims wore. And make no mistake, Horgan's approach is firmly predatory. Behaviour traits - chin rubbing, stair skipping, prolonged silences - are entertaining and sometimes informative. But it's clear that Horgan relates them only in attempting to erode whatever status these figures have achieved. His quest is simplistic and focussed - to each subject he posits The Question: "Do you have The Answer?".

"The Answer" is a "final theory". The advances made by particle physics and cosmology during the last century suggested a unifying formula might tie the universe together. Realisation of the concept has brought physicists deeper into the atom in search of evidence. These depths have proven beyond our perception, says Horgan, and the cost of further penetration is too high for the public to bear. Besides, the quest may be futile. There's no indication that a Final Theory would emerge from such probing, Horgan argues.

The Final Theory has implications in the other direction. Can quantum physics explain the mechanisms of the mind? Is the scope of human conception so great that it can someday interact with the mythical Creator? Horgan challenges philosophers and neuroscientists to show their work is leading to new, more fundamental, understanding. His approach is sly and disarming. While he contends science is no long searching for the truth, he really means they're not divulging The Truth, a term scorned by nearly all scientists. The distinction is important, almost overwhelmingly so in this book. Horgan, it turns out, isn't really interested in the status of science. His real quest is for personal certainty. It's a valid quest, but hardly worth the price of demolishing so many scholars. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]