Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 108 views

    Where Is Science Going-Max Planck-Intro

    Uploaded by

    Bond

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Where Is Science Going-Max Planck-Intro

    Uploaded by

    Bond
    108 views1 page

    Original Title

    Where Is Science Going-Max Planck-intro

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    108 views1 page

    Where Is Science Going-Max Planck-Intro

    Uploaded by

    Bond

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 1

    1933-1 SHORTER NOTICES 335

    Where Is Science Going? By Max Planck. Prologue by Albert Einstein. Trans-


    lation and Biographical Note by James Murphy. New York, W. W. Norton
    and Co., 1932. 221 pp. Price, $2.75.
    A great scientist and great man here analyzes the present state of physics
    and a half century of its development with reference to its implications for the
    further progress of science and for certain major interests of human welfare in
    general. The prologue by Einstein, discussing the motives which impel some of
    our choicer spirits to scientific research, furnishes a fitting prelude to the gen-
    eral theme of the book. The introduction by Murphy will stimulate the reader's
    interest in Planck both as scientist and as man. Chapter I, Fifty years of sci-
    ence, (pp. 41-63), gives a brief non-technical but illuminating presentation of
    the background of the present state of physics. The second chapter argues for
    the reality of the external world and sharply opposes a bare positivistic phi-
    losophy of science. This reality can never be fully attained; but "it is not the
    possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, t h a t
    enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him." The third chapter is devoted
    to the scientist's picture of the physical universe. The next two chapters treat
    of causation and the freedom of the will. I t is too much to expect any one to
    deal satisfactorily with the latter problem. With respect to the former the
    considered judgment of Planck is that the principle of causality should be
    given such a modified formulation as to restore it to strict validity. The final
    chapter deals with the passage from the relative to the absolute. The book
    closes with an epilogue in the form of a Socratic dialogue by Planck, Einstein
    and Murphy. Throughout this stimulating volume the treatment is as free of
    technicalities as the nature of the subject admits.
    R. D. CARMICHAEL

    Kurventheorie. By Karl Menger. Herausgegeben unter Mitarbeit von Georg


    Nöbeling. Berlin and Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1932. v i + 3 7 0 pp.
    In the last chapter of Pierpont's Theory of Functions of Real Variables, vol.
    I I (1912), there is a discussion of several geometric concepts, including t h a t of
    a plane curve. Various definitions which might appear reasonable at first sight
    are examined and shown to be inadequate, with the net result that the question,
    "What is a curve," is not answered. After the lapse of twenty years, we have a
    book devoted to this question, which gives the answer and discusses extensively
    the properties of curves, in a way little dreamed of in 1912.
    T h e book under discussion is to be the second volume of a work entitled
    Mengentheoretische Geometrie. In addition to being the first treatise on the
    theory of curves and their topological properties, the book performs the further
    service of gathering together in an organic whole much of the research work
    on this subject done since the war—work which, from the nature of its piece-
    meal appearance, must have seemed to many to be of a pointless character. To
    Americans this book is of special interest, in view of the generous acknowledge-
    ment of their contributions to the subject in the publishers' announcement and
    in the bibliographical notes.
    In the first chapter are given elementary notions from point-set theory for
    later use, and brief discussions of various types of point sets, such as irreducible

    License or copyright restrictions may apply to redistribution; see https://www.ams.org/journal-terms-of-use

    You might also like