This is a series of three lectures given by the physicist and teacher Richard Feynman in 1963. His topics are very broad: "The Uncertainty of Science", "The Uncertainty of Value" and "This Unscientific Age". In the first lecture, Feynman defends the position of ignorance and uncertainty as being an essential starting-point for any scientific enquiry. In the second he looks at the relationship between science and morality, and comes to the conclusion that science can have no bearing on questions of morality or religion: the two fields attempt to answer entirely different and mutually exclusive types of questions. While science asks, "What would happen if I did this?", no amount of scientific experiment can shed any light on the question, "Do I want this to happen?". The third lecture is an eclectic overview of various impediments to scientific thought in society. He looks not only at superstition, but at the ideological boundaries to rational scientific enquiry that existed at the time in the Soviet Union.

It's a very accessible book, humorous without being frivolous, and Feynman gives great insight into some of the central assumptions of scientists, e.g. what does it mean in science for a law to be "proved"? What does it mean to be "right"? Can scientists ever be finally right about anything, or are they always approximately so? By what process do people change their minds about what they believe in?

Thought-provoking, but too short!

Released on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at Bench at junction of Hoghton Lane and Chapel Lane in Hoghton, England United Kingdom.

The bench is next to a postbox and opposite a garage with loads of old military vehicles parked outside it.

Found by the postbox near my parents house.

The book consists of transcripts of three lectures Feynamn delivered in the 1960s. And, frankly, its rubbish. There's lots of reasons why, but these are the 2 biggies:

1. People write very differently to how they talk, and this book is a great example of that. While I'm willing to give Feynman the benefit of the doubt and say these could've been excellent lectures, they are surprsinigly difficult to read.

2. In 133 pages, Feynman makes just 3 points: the truly wise man realises he knows very little; scientific principles cannot really be applied to morality/religion (even though he does apply them...); and there are many areas of life were the scientific method is not used but could (or should) be. There are plenty of books that make a much better fist of explaining these concepts. There is no insight here, just a regurgitation of what were accepted as truisms long before Feynman's time. To be honest, I'm glad it was so short.

I feel sorry for whoever catches this next...