Ant, a check, Where does Hawking say ZMM influenced his writing of Brief History ? (I can see he says he was flattered by the comparison.) Ian
On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 3:00 AM, Ant McWatt <[email protected]> wrote: > (In the context of Stephen Hawking quoting ZMM as an inspiration for his 1988 > popular science text "A Brief History of Time") Ant McWatt referenced the > following article, March 7th 2014: > > http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/08/science/la-sci-sn-stephen-hawking-new-book-20130908 > > > John Carl commented, March 8th 2014: > > Somebody copped you to the fact that Hawking is not my favorite guy - > something to do with this statement that philosophy is dead no doubt. Would > you be happy over the pronouncement of the decease of your true love? > > > Ant McWatt comments: > > John, > > When Stephen Hawking's comment that "philosophy is dead" is put in its wider > context, I couldn't agree more. Philip Goff, a young philosopher at my old > Department helpfully provides this context for us: > > "I don't imagine that Hawking is in a hurry to answer this philosophical > challenge. The opening page of his book proclaims that "philosophy is dead", > due to the fact that philosophers have failed to keep up with mathematical > developments in physics. This doesn't stop him, and his co-writer > Leonard Mlodinow, indulging in some very crude philosophical discussions of > free will and metaphysical realism in later chapters. Hawking is right to > say that most philosophers don't understand cutting-edge physics. But it cuts > both ways: most physicists don't understand cutting-edge philosophy." > > http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/30/stephen-hawking-disproved-gods-role-creation > > > Ant McWatt comments: > > For anyone who has read my Ph.D., they will realise by the time they reach > the addendum ("The MOQ & Time") that there is a considerable amount of > physics in the thesis - so much so, in fact, that I think it's really more a > philosophy major/physics minor Ph.D. than a pure philosophy one. > > Well, with that in mind, I'll tell anyone that it is interested that most, if > not all of the physics in the text, went over my examiners heads. I was > actually rather disappointed in their lack of interest in the latter as I > thought - just like Prof. Hawking - that these people (being "professional > philosophers") should really be "getting a handle" on what modern science > tells us about reality. Anyway, I certainly lost some respect for most > "professional philosophers" at this point. The phrase "professional > dilettante" sprang to mind... > > No matter, "that was zen and this is now". I haven't read enough of Stephen > Hawking's philosophical work to make an opinion about it but I'd rather start > from his intellectual position than the average philosophologist. > > > So Ant, what got you interested in physics? > > Well, good question. When I started my Ph.D. studies, I was sharing a > students' house in Liverpool with a French guy who was taking a pure > physics degree and he left his textbooks on quantum mechanics by Richard > Feynman lying around the house. What initially caught my eye about Feynman's > textbooks is that the introductions had the guy pictured playing bongos! > WTF!!! > > This famous image of Feynman is now featured on the front cover of some of > the newer editions of his lectures as can be seen via the following link: > > http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-definitive-volume-3-2nd/p/itmdytsuajzf96vm > > The same physics student also got me into the music of the rather cool Serge > Gainsbourg and the rather lovely Jane Birkin but that's another story... > > Gitane anyone? > > > . > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
