The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
By Sean Carroll
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About this ebook
Where are we? Who are we? Do our beliefs, hopes and dreams hold any significance out there in the void? Can human purpose and meaning ever fit into a scientific worldview?
Award-winning author Sean Carroll brings his extraordinary intellect to bear on the realms of knowledge, the laws of nature and the most profound questions about life, death and our place in it all.
From Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness and the universe itself, Carroll combines cosmos-sprawling science and profound thought in a quest to explain our world. Destined to sit alongside the works of our greatest thinkers, The Big Picture demonstrates that while our lives may be forever dwarfed by the immensity of the universe, they can be redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.
Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of natural philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He won the Royal Society Winton Prize for his book on the search for the elusive Higgs boson, The Particle at the End of the Universe, and The Big Picture was an international bestseller. He lives in Los Angeles. @seanmcarroll preposterousuniverse.com
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Reviews for The Big Picture
111 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I will refrain from writing a review on this one because, well, to be honest, I just don't feel like it right now. I'll just say that Carroll's The Big Picture is a clear account of his philosophy of poetic naturalism. It's a viewpoint rooted in empirical science, an account of what our best evidence suggests, and an internally consistent and reasonable position with no claims of providing any absolute Truths.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was not an easy read. There is a LOT of science in this book, and even though each chapter builds on itself in a nice logical sequence, I found it difficult at times to keep up. That does not mean that the ideas are inscrutable, rather that I had to slow down and think about what was being said from time to time. That's not a bad thing. In the end I'm probably not the best for an impartial review as apparently I already see the world and life as a Poetic Naturalist might, although I had not heard the term previously.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a book about how we know reality, Much of it is epistemology and deals with what we know objectively about the real world, in a point of view called "poetic naturalism." This involves what we know through the methods of science. Beyond this are all of the ways of knowing that include the subjective sense of meaning, identity, caring, and purpose.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53. 5 would be a better rating.The science portion of the book was written in a fairly interesting and educating way.The philosophy portion of the book, and there is a lot of philosophy in it, was "thin gruel".
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful book, mostly pretty easy to read, tying together concepts about particle physics, cosmology, the origin of life, all sorts of stuff - along with a naturalistic philosophy to show how it all might relate to meaning in human life. I thought the science part was stronger than the philosophy part - I agreed with the philosophy stuff, it just didn't seem all that exciting. But I like the guy's attitude - sympathetic and respectful towards those he doesn't agree with.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book deep dives into how we humans came into existence from the rise of entropy and the Big Bang, the first elements, time and space, the first agglomeration of matter (planets), the primordial soup, the very first cell, cell replication and the origination of the first organisms, the creation of complex organs, systems, tissue, humans, DNA, God, Creators, Cosmo, life, meaning of life, the rise of consciousness, free will. It covers it all.
Extremely interesting and one to read a couple times at least. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I agree with every point the author makes, except maybe I'm not comfortable with the term poetic naturalism because it sounds somewhat pretentious. Unfortunately most of the book deals with language and not the big picture or science. I think this book was written for spiritual people and is lost on me because I'm already on-board with the gut punching, purpose denying train to oblivion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To say this is an ambitious book is an understatement. Just read the subtitle: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself. The author, Sean Carroll, is a professor of physics at Cal Tech, which alone entitles him to a certain amount of hubris. Moreover, I learned in a YouTube video that he inherited Richard Feynman’s desk (the physical thing) if not his chair (the position within the Cal Tech hierarchy).Carroll begins by acquainting the reader with what he calls the “Core Theory,” (a term coined by Frank Wilczek) which refers to our present understanding of the basic laws of physics. He asserts that the physics of everyday life are completely known, even if we lack complete knowledge about all of physics. He contends that while we may continue to develop deeper understanding or more accurate and precise theories, the current conception of the Core Theory will still be essentially valid a thousand years from now because it works. (That is to say, for example, we can send people into outer space with absolute confidence based on its premises.)Carroll analyzes in detail the process by which scientists form beliefs about the world. Essentially, we engage in the process described by Bayes’ theorem. (In probability theory, Bayes' theorem describes predicting the probability of an event based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event.) New information can, however, alter and affect our existing “credences,” or beliefs about what must be true. As Carroll explains, Leibnitz and Spinoza formulated the “principle of sufficient reason,” the surprisingly controversial theory that there must be a reason why things are the way they are rather than some other way. Carroll points out that man seeks to understand the world in terms of reasons or causes - i.e., "existing credences." David Hume, with whom Carroll agrees, argued that the principle of sufficient reason is an empirical observation, not a law of logic. Hence, there may be things or phenomena that simply do not have explanations. They are brute facts — they just are! To Carroll, the existence of the universe itself, and the fact that it was once in a very low entropy state are just such brute facts. [The physicist Richard Feynman, on the other hand, asserted that everything that appeared mystical was simply an insufficiently explained mystery with a physical answer not yet found.] Although he is a physicist by training, Carroll has mastered a great deal of evolutionary biology, microbiology, and information theory. He provides a cogent explication of the origin of life and subsequent evolution (with a little help from Charles Darwin) that obviates a theological explanation.Carroll takes issue with the principle of "intelligent design" to justify unexplained complexity. As Carroll argues, one could make a powerful rebuttal to the intelligent design argument based on an important biological process underlying how our universe works, i.e., that of emergence. “Emergence” refers to the self-organization of complex systems. Life itself is a classic example of an emergent phenomenon. Scientists have found, for example, that polymers (many molecules all strung together to form really long chains) can and do catalyze the formation of other polymers and a diverse number of reactions by themselves. Something new emerges and starts to form a pattern, and if it has a survival advantage, it will continue to happen. Thus, the whole turns into something different than the parts, and its properties can only be understood at the macro level. Think about trying to predict an avalanche that is made up of only snow or sand. How would you know which single grain of either would be the one to set off the avalanche when they are all the same? Emergence indeed seems “miraculous” but it is predictable, and can be replicated in a laboratory. But there is no reason philosophers would necessarily have knowledge of the process of the autocatalysis that characterizes emergence.Carroll uses the concept of emergence to discuss free will. In a sense, one’s actions and desires may be “determined” at the atomic level, but an explanation of behavior based on atomic phenomena would simply be too complicated and incomprehensible to attempt. Instead, descriptions of acts and desires on a macro level are useful and comprehensible. While Carroll is an avowed atheist, he is not as polemical as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, or Christopher Hitchens. He is an excellent, hard-headed scientist, but he gets a little touchy-feely when he wanders into philosophy. He espouses a philosophy he calls “poetic naturalism.” Here is how he explains this concept:"By that I mean to emphasize that, while there is only one world, there are many ways of talking about the world. 'Ways of talking' shouldn’t be underestimated; they can otherwise be labeled 'theories' or 'models' or 'vocabularies' or 'stories,' and if a particular way of talking turns out to be sufficiently accurate and useful, the elements in its corresponding vocabulary deserve to be called real.The poet Muriel Rukeyser once wrote, 'The universe is made of stories, not atoms.' That is absolutely correct. There is more to the world than what happens; there are the ways we make sense of it by telling its story. The vocabulary we use is not handed to us from outside; it’s ultimately a matter of our choice."Many other scientists would take issue with Carroll on this. There are too many people who think that anecdotal incidents and opinions should hold the same weight as scientifically derived evidence, to the detriment of our political choices, and ultimately the fate of our planet.Evaluation: With the few exceptions, and some limitations described below on listening to this as opposed to reading it in hard copy, this is for the most part an excellent book, clearly written with a surprising sense of humor, considering the topic. A Few Notes on the Audio Production:I listened to an audio version of the book read by the author. I have watched his lectures on YouTube, where he is an excellent speaker and presenter. However, for this audiobook, he reads in “upspeak.” It is as if every assertion is a question. In addition, in an obvious effort to avoid sexism, whenever he refers to an unidentified individual of an unidentified gender he calls him or her “they” or “them.” That locution has become pretty commonplace, but I find it annoying. Another shortcoming in listening to the book is that in the epilogue, Carroll states that the Core Theory can be encapsulated in Richard Feynman’s path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. That would be okay, except that that formula is quite complex and simply does not lend itself to being read aloud. One would have to look at it to digest it, but Carroll just reads it.(JAB)
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Picture by Sean Carroll is a very accessible addition to the category of science books for the general public. As is usually the case this incorporates contextualizing the science within the more philosophical parameters of daily life. We may not think of our lives as philosophically driven but our actions and ideas are indeed so in the broadest sense. Carroll uses the concept of “poetic naturalism” to bring the discussion from the hows of science to the whys of the humanities.I found his discussions quite enjoyable and his arguments well grounded both scientifically (of course) and philosophically. That isn’t to say I agreed with every use of every term but he did not grossly misuse any terms to make a concept fit his paradigm. This is often where books at the boundaries between disciplines begin to falter; that does not occur here.I would recommend this to anyone who generally likes these books as well as anyone looking for a substantive discussion of naturalism using the latest science as part of the case-building. An enjoyable read with very few instances which should require extensive background.Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
1 person found this helpful