A Cylinder in a Void

Feb 2020
Anaximander - Carlo Rovelli, tr. Marion Lignana Rosenberg – Westholme Publishing, 2011
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The first thing to say is that this is not really a biography because almost nothing is known about Anaximander's life and his writings have been lost. Instead, Rovelli uses his ideas - in particular, his vision of the earth as a cylinder hanging in a void "because of its indifference" - as a starting point for an investigation of what makes scientific thought different from other forms of knowledge. The conclusions he comes to will be familiar to anyone versed in the Western liberal tradition of academic discourse and probably won't do much to persuade those who have already rejected them. But they are worth stating nonetheless.
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