Review- The character of physical law

The Character of Physical Law by Richard P. Feynman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I very much enjoyed this book, although I'll confess to not understanding large parts of it. As such, I won't try to explain the physics. Feynman has a boyish wit, exemplified in the first chapter, where he explains that when playing the bongo drums in front of an audience, no one ever sees fit to announce that he is a theoretical physicist. That makes the book enjoyable even where the science is very complex (Feynman makes fewer concessions to the lay reader, to my mind, than do other popularizing scientists such as Hawkins). The author is passionate in his view that the beauty of nature can be more fully understood if one understands the mathematical basis of the physical laws, and his joy shines through on each page.

The use of analogies when discussing topics at a high level of abstraction are vital, and the ones chosen by Feynman are memorable. His description of trying to dry oneself with wet towels as a means to explain the conservation of energy, both illuminates the topic and is impishly amusing.

I wasn't wholly convinced by Feynman's philosophy of science. At one point, he says that when a thing cannot be defined so precisely, then one cannot claim to know anything about it. I wonder whether this is exaggeration for comic effect when he is (rightly) mocking Freud, as the 'anything' is doing too much labour. The final pages of the book were also curious, as Feynman states that humans will eventually reach a point where either all the physical laws are known, or so many layers of reality will be discovered that they will become prohibitively difficult to investigate. Either way, boredom will result. Perhaps this passage should be read ironically, as the intellectual pessimism there is at odds with the tone of the rest of the book.

In any case, we're not there yet.



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