Fundamentals
Frank Wilczek
Penguin Press, $26
As the story is usually told, science began when some deep thinkers in ancient Greece decided to reject the popular mythological explanations for various natural phenomena. Those early philosophers sought logical explanations for things like thunderstorms, rather than attributing them to Zeus throwing temper tantrums in the form of thunderbolts.
But early Greek scientific philosophy was not merely about replacing myth with logic. For the Greeks, explaining reality did not mean just devising a logical reason for each natural phenomenon in isolation — it was also about seeking a deep, coherent explanation for everything. And that meant identifying fundamental principles that explained a diversity of phenomena, encompassing the totality of physical reality. That’s the essence of science.