About.com Rating



Space and time are the foundations of our existence, our experiences, and our lives. Nothing is more fundamental than they, and probably because of that, nothing is more capable of producing paradox and confusion than attempted reflection on their nature. Just what are space and time, how do they operate, and do they even ?really? exist?

Summary

Title: Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time
Author: Robin Le Poidevin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198752547


Pro:
?  Provides a great deal of food for thought
?  You?ll be thinking about what this book says long after you put it down

Con:
?  Tough subject to get a handle on

Description:
?  Analysis of our concepts of space and time from a philosophical perspective
?  Describes various paradoxes involving space and time to see what they can tell us
?  Helps readers learn to think more carefully about these topics

 

Book Review

Questions about the nature of space and time are not easy to even understand sometimes, much less discuss coherently, but that?s exactly what Robin Le Poidevin does in his book Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time. Originally a series of lectures delivered on the topics, Le Poidevin collected them together and edited them into a book in order to stimulate thought on questions about space and time among a wider audience.

That, I think, is a goal he will definitely achieve. His book is by no means easy to read and get through ? a person with no experience in philosophy or science will have some trouble in places.

At the same time, though, the time and effort needed to tackle Le Poidevin?s ideas and questions are worthwhile. He gives a reader a great deal to think about, far more than can be completely digested at one sitting.

Consider, for example, the question of just what time is. Everyone has clocks and watches, but how do you know that they are accurate? How do you know what, precisely, they are measuring?

• ?We take it for granted that the intention of the clock is to measure time. But perhaps this familiar notion is, after all, a rather peculiar one when we pause to scrutinize it. What is it for an instrument to measure *time? ...[U]nlike the kitchen scales, [clocks] are not entirely independent of what they are measuring. For when people talk of time, are they not simply talking, in an abstract way, of change??

Why do questions about space and time create so much confusion and lead to so many paradoxes? The reason probably lies in the fact that they are the foundations for our ability to understand everything else. One might assume that if they weren?t clear, then nothing else would be clear either, but that?s not the case.

The problem is that when we try to understand other things, we are able to separate ourselves from them and at least try to adopt something like an objective perspective. We cannot, however, do that with space or time ? we are forever inextricably bound to them. While we have space and time as the contexts for understanding things like the movement of planets or the weather, we don?t have any external context that allows to get a better grasp on space and time themselves.

As a consequence, we are continually forced to fall back on analogies, stories, and other techniques that are inherently flawed. A professor of Metaphysics at the University of Leeds, Robin Le Poidevin understands this and understands that there probably can?t be anything like a final, definitive answer to our questions about space and time. That, however, may not be the point. We may end up learning more simply by asking interesting questions and attempting to answer them than we would by being able to come up with final answers.