The Science Before Science: A Guide to Thinking in the 21st Century

Rating:
Summary: Informative reading for all students of science
Review: Anthony Rizzi earned two degrees in physics, one from MIT and the other from Princeton University. Among his accomplishments is included the resolution of an 80-year-old problem in Einstein's theory; the first scientist to be appointed to Caltech's Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory (LIGO, LA), and founding The Institute for Advanced Physics where he also serves as the full-time director. In The Science Before Science: A Guide To Thinking In The 21st Century (which is also available in a hardcover edition (1418465038, $28.95), Rizzi maintains that there "good science" is that which expands the human mind; "bad science" is that which confuses the human mind. He also points out that "good religion" confirms our nature while "bad religion" confounds our nature. What is needed is a combination of good science and good religion if we are to achieve a true and expanding understanding of the universe we live in. Along the way, Rizzi addresses such unusual issues as the possibility of time travel; how a fuller science naturally leads to proofs for the existence of God; artificial intelligence, other forms of intelligence in the universe, and more. As much a treatise on the philosophy of science as it is a compilation of the nature of sound inquiry whether it be in the fields of physics or metaphysics, The Science Before Science is engaging, informed, and informative reading for all students of science, philosophy, and religion.


Rating:
Summary: Thoughts from a scientist
Review: Dr. Anthony Rizzi's book "The Science before Science: A Guide to Thinking in the 21st Century" is a refreshing analysis of the problems of modern natural science. And it includes a solution! Dr. Rizzi gets to the bottom of one of the major issues that we have all come across in our encounters with statements from modern scientists in the press: bewildering propositions that cause us to question our ability to reason or to throw up our hands in contempt for science. For example, in a recent article, it was posited that one possible "explanation" of some aspects of modern physics is that there are copies of ourselves in an infinite number of other universes. What are we to make of this bizarre statement? We either conclude that we are completely unable to trust our reason which says "that is ridicules," or we lose confidence in science. Dr. Rizzi comes to the rescue by pointing out that we are not crazy, and modern science is internally reliable; it's just that the modern scientist has not properly translated his/her work from highly constrained theoretical conceptions to day-to-day reality. Rizzi says "they are not grounding their thinking in the basic understandings we get from a deep analysis of common experience (which Rizzi artfully does in his book) and which were so well established in classical philosophy." The solution is to reconnect philosophy with natural science. This reconnection is difficult but it is imperative in order to understand the relationship of modern scientific findings to the real world. Dr. Rizzi has both written the book and established an institute for just such an application: The Institute for Advanced Physics. The book is a "must read" for all natural scientists as well as the educated public. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Al Forrester, Author and Consultant, Atlanta, Georgia
Review: Dr. Rizzi's book is beautifully written and of profound importance for our culture. Currently, we are mired in a crisis of truth. People generally reject the notion of objective moral truth, in favor of a nihilistic relativism. Scientists, in principle, but not in practice, also tend to reject the certainty of truth in their own specific fields. No one seems to be sure of what they know, and many doubt that a person can know anything absolutely. This is the consequence, Rizzi says, of poor philosophical formation at the most basic levels of common sense.

Dr. Rizzi is not only a brilliant phyisicist, but also an outstanding philosopher. His book gives us the philosophical tools which help us answer these questions, tools which help us to see clearly that we can know truth, objectively. He dispells the myth relativism as it appears in all fields of science, from morality and ethics to physics.

I would also add that his book is written in such a way that it is very accessible to general audiences. I recommend it highly.