Here is a very quick review of What We Believe But Cannot Prove, edited John Brockman. The book has about 80 scientists and thinkers describing what they believe but cannot prove. Of course, scientists are not normally valued for what they cannot prove because their method is to use an evidence based approach. To be more exact, scientists cannot actually prove anything – they propose and test hypothesises. But to propose a hypothesis in the first place, they require some intuitive insight into the world. This insight can often be incorrect but occasionally they can make a new discovery from a good guess.

The book addresses some of the big questions of philosophy and science. This bridge is allowed since they are guessing future science might be able to provide some insight (and one day may be in the same language game?). For example, the nature of consciousness is one topic that is a border between these two subjects. They also speculate on alien life, the soul, global warming, the creative power of boredom, language, black holes, many universes, moral progress, and many more topics.

One area you might find interesting is Daniel C Dennett speculating that language is a requirement for consciousness while Alun Anderson and Joseph LeDoux guessing that other animals are just as conscious as humans. The last four contributors state a modernist view that humans are getting better (moral, altruistically) or are at least intrinsically good. This is a breath of fresh air from the fog of post-modernism I think exists in current studies of humanities. (I am aware of the difficulty of defining what constitutes improvement.)

My next mini-review will probably be “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera. (But any book that mentions Nietzsche in the first line can’t be all bad!)

AC1