Cosmic secrets : basic features of reality /

Schommers (theoretical physicist, Karlsruhe Research Centre, Germany) argues in this book that basic reality is fundamentally not knowable, hence the title Cosmic Secrets. Instead, what humans understand to be reality is a picture of reality that is imposed on a notion of space and time that exists in our minds. He develops his theory of projection to describe the process through which people come to what they understand as reality. The analysis is reminiscent of Kant's theory of perception, but the author provides a mathematical basis for his arguments by casting them in terms that a theoretical physicist would find familiar, though they would be less accessible to a nonscientist. This book would fit best in the philosophy of science section of a college library, although philosophy students might find the mathematical sections difficult to follow. Nonetheless, some sections, such as the one on time travel, will be both accessible and interesting to a devoted general reader. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and informed general audiences. A. Spero formerly, University of California