Inventing Reality: Physics as Language

by Bruce Gregory

Physicists invented a language in order to talk about the world. This book does not set out to explain the discipline, but rather to explore the relationship between the language of physics and the world it describes. The physics whose history the author traces here is concerned with understanding the ultimate constituents of matter and the nature of the forces through which these constituents interact. The very precise language (mathematics) of physicists gives us an opportunity to see more clearly than is otherwise possible just how much of what we find in the world is a result of the way we talk about it. Anyone interested in the history of physics and its language would enjoy reading this book.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Philosophy, Language

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am decidedly in awe of this book. It is simply the best, straightforward description of physics I have ever read.

I do have to get one proviso in straight away. This isn’t a typical popular science book. Although it is accessible and hasn’t got formulae, it is a rather cold, clinical, dry assessment with little of the storytelling and use of biographical detail that makes popular science more approachable. It is, arguably, a very readable textbook, rather than a popular science book. But if you are prepared to put in the effort to read it, it builds the structure of classical and then modern physics layer by layer in a way that makes it all beautifully clear.

But that’s not the most remarkable thing – because in a way explaining physics is only a sideline of the book. Its main theme is the way that science, and physics in particularly, is a construct, a way of predicting what happens that is quite detached from whatever reality may be. It shows why, for instance, Feynman’s instance that everything quantum was particles, and the more prevalent idea among modern physicists that everything is fields is not a disagreement but simply two descriptions both of which work to match what is observed and neither of which is any more than a model of reality. The subtitle is ‘physics as language’ for a reason.

So don’t expect fun stories, and do expect to work quite hard to take in a combination of practically everything important aspect of physics and some quite heavy duty philosophy all in a single slim tome. But it is so worth the effort. You will both understand the nature of physics better and see science in a whole new light. It is quite possibly the best book about science I have ever read.

This is not a new book – it came out in 1988 and depressingly it is out of print, though you can get copies from Amazon Marketplace (if you don’t mind a used copy, very cheaply). But apart from technological references (for instance it thinks the collider that might find the Higgs is the never-built American SSC, not the LHC) there is nothing whatsoever that has dated here.

There is something of a tendency to bring back out of print books as ebooks as it’s cheap to do – please Wiley, do it for this one. The world needs it.

Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an awesome book for anyone who wants a better understanding of quantum physics. Most of the popular books on the subject are about the theories based on physics and always left me feeling like I'd have to gain some crazy math skills before understanding what led to those conclusions. Although this isn't as exciting as the theoretical stuff, it gives a solid foundation for looking at those theories more critically.

My favorite quote in the book: "In an ordinary way I might say that I do not believe in neutrinos. But I have to reflect that a physicist may be an artist, and you never know where you are with artists. My old-fashioned kind of disbelief in neutrinos is scarcely enough. Dare I say that experimental physicists will not have sufficient ingenuity to make neutrinos? Whatever I may think, I am not going to be lured into a wager against the skill of experimenters under the impression that it is a wager against the truth of a theory. If they succeed in making neutrinos, perhaps even in developing industrial applications of them, I suppose I shall have to believe -- though I may feel that they have not been playing quite fair." -- Sir Arthur Eddington

[Nick Davila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, one of the best description of physics I've ever read. I wish I could come up with some poetic way to describe how great this book is but I'm not smart nor creative enough so I'll just be straightforward. This is the closest I've found to a true popular science physics book where I could hand this to someone that doesn't do physics and they'd enjoy it (with some effort). Essentially this book answers the question "is physics invented or discovered?" This might be a book I re-read every couple years because I really enjoyed most of it (some parts got kinda dry and slow and outdated but still enjoyable). I will say, I wish there was slightly more philosophical talk and not just history. The first half is basically all physics history then the second half is like philosophy of science/physics/math and I really love that stuff :3.

Nice quote I like: "Physics shows us a different way to look at these questions—a way that asks what vocabulary, what theory, we should use to talk about the world. The word should makes sense in terms of the ends we hope to achieve. The question need not be whether reality is material or spiritual; it can be, what follows from talking about reality in one way or the other? What do we gain, and what price do we pay, for adopting one vocabulary and giving up another? Like the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, the quarks and leptons of the present day are a story. How long physicists will continue to tell the story outlined in this book depends on how long it serves a useful purpose."

[John Badger · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Didn’t at all convince me about language relating to physics, just peppered in the idea a few times and didn’t back it up. Only at the end did the author try and deliver on the promise of the title of the book, but really just mish mash quoted a bunch of scientists on the topic, without any synthesis. I remain unconvinced or unlearned on the relationship between physics and language. However the history of physics, which is really all this book is, is well summarised before quarks and beyond, in which it’s just a dump of ideas rapidly sped through with no intention of explaining. Some great simplifications of ideas at the start, but quickly became needlessly complex and yet still uninformative

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives a concise overview (c. 170 pages) of the history of modern physics and discusses the relationship between physics, language and how we understand our reality (c. 30 pages).

Good
- Short sentences, clear writing, easy to follow.
- The book tackles all (or at least most of all) major developments in the area of physics within the last c. 250 years.

Neutral:
- Reader should already have some knowledge about the topic. This book is basically the abridged version of Jim Baggott‘s The Quantum Story: A history in 40 moments (and the like).

Bad:
- The last 25-30 pages drift somewhat into the realm of linguistic relativity / determinism (i.e. how physics as a language affects our reality) without much depth.
- This part is written in a very repetitive and extremely trivial manner.

[Loki · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a history of physics than a philosophical investigation (which is what I expected from the title) but it's still interesting, especially for the layman.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book combines a history of physics with a discussion of the philosophy of science.

I found the history to be interesting, but sadly light on details. Those topics that I already knew something about were put in context with other physics concepts, but topics I didn't know as much about weren't described well enough for me to really get a good understanding of them. I don't think I would recommend this book to someone who didn't already know something about relativity, quantum theory, and the standard model.

The philosophy of science aspects of this book were great. Well presented, good ideas that really caused me to think about how physics concepts are used and what experiments mean. Even though the history isn't detailed enough to stand on its own, the philosophy in this book more than makes up for it. I might recommend that people interested in how science is done just read the first chapter and the last three.

[Les Weiler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great narrative of physics through the emergence of quantum theories. I enjoye the authors take on the shifts in language that accompany the shifts in understanding of science.