Any book recommendations.....

[Astro Waves]

Not sure if this was the right part of the forum to post this in.

I was just wanting to know if any one had any good book recommendations on space/astrophysics/time/blackholes etc and that fun kinda stuff and also the philosophy of science? My physics knowledge isn't exactly the greatest so anything that's really technical I might slightly struggle with but I've been really trying to learn anything I don't know and more than happy to put in the time to get to grips with it. The kind of things Ive been reading to give you an idea are:

The universe in your hand - Christophe Galfard

The consolations of physics - Tim Radford

Reality is not what it seems: The journey into quantum gravity - Carlos Rovelli 

There's a couple others as well but I'm sure you get the idea. I've been enjoying watching stuff on the philosophy of science as well but would prefer some things to read as well as its easier to make notes on get to grips with a concept. 

Hopefully this isn't all too vague, if it is pop us any questions. 

[George Jones]

4 hours ago, Astro Waves said:

Not sure if this was the right part of the forum to post this in.

I was just wanting to know if any one had any good book recommendations on space/astrophysics/time/blackholes etc and that fun kinda stuff and also the philosophy of science? My physics knowledge isn't exactly the greatest so anything that's really technical I might slightly struggle with but I've been really trying to learn anything I don't know and more than happy to put in the time to get to grips with it. The kind of things Ive been reading to give you an idea are:

The universe in your hand - Christophe Galfard

The consolations of physics - Tim Radford

Reality is not what it seems: The journey into quantum gravity - Carlos Rovelli 

There's a couple others as well but I'm sure you get the idea. I've been enjoying watching stuff on the philosophy of science as well but would prefer some things to read as well as its easier to make notes on get to grips with a concept. 

Hopefully this isn't all too vague, if it is pop us any questions. 

 

There are too many books to read. Here are some examples, going form newest to oldest by publication date.

"The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" by Katie Mack https://www.astrokatie.com/book

"Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality" by Max Tegmark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Mathematical_Universe

Going back years, both John Barrow and Paul Davies wrote many interesting books. Example include

"The Universe that Discovered Itself" by John Barrow

"About Time" by Paul Davies.

Edited July 31, 2021 by George Jones

[Astro Waves]

Amazing, thanks for some suggestions I'll give them all a good look. 

[Zermelo]

When you say "philosophy of science", are you more interested in hypotheses about the nature of reality, matter, spacetime, consciousness, etc. (i.e. ontology and metaphysics) or thinking more broadly about the scientific enterprise and discipline, the ways that it is undertaken, the nature and degree of its authority, the confidence we can have in its pronouncements, its interaction with wider society, ... (i.e. epistemology, sociology)?

The former category has filled the popular science shelves in bookshops for years. The Tegmark book mentioned above is an interesting contribution, though I was left unconvinced by the arguments. Another good one is The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose. Again I was unconvinced by his central theme, but it's a good read that ranges across several different areas.

in the latter category there are consolidated surveys like What is this Thing Called Science? by A. F. Chalmers, which is very accessible. The late Peter Medawar (a biologist by trade) also wrote some highly-regarded books on science philosophy, though I think The Art of the Soluble and Pluto's Republic might be out of print now. And if you want to dig deeper, you can follow the references to the source works by their original authors - Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend (if you can take him seriously), etc.