Customer Reviews

Space, Time, and Spacetime

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This book has won philosophical awards, and with good reason- it is a valuable resource for anyone looking to learn about the philosophical issues surrounding space and time. In fact, this is the book that is usually read for classes on the topic. A few of the central topics he discusses are the philosophy of geometry, the reality of space-time, and the arrow of time. Some of these topics do not recieve the coverage a lone book on them would achieve, but this is only to be expected, and Sklar tells the reader this in the introduction.

Sklar's writing is lucid, and he weaves the various topics together very nicely. The style is a little dry, but that is probably as it should be- the book is a serious philosophical work. While the book was not written for the lay reader, there is nothing inherent in the nature of the material that would prevent someone unschooled in philosophy from taking it up.

I read this book years ago when I was quite interested in the topics addressed. During that time I read quite a bit ranging from fluff popularizations to hard-core philosophy of science. Sklar's book was by for my favorite. Why? I found it really addressed the issues in philosphy of science and relativity that fascinated me. I found solid answers and insighful analysis that I didn't find elsewhere. No poetic, but vacuous, metaphors or needless formalism--just getting to the heart of the problems.

However monumental the book maybe, if it bores the reader to death, the ideas contained in it just never get conveyed. This is one of the most boring books I have ever read (and I can tell you I'm also a frequent reader books laden with heavy and long-winded mathematical/philosophical concepts). I fail to see why Sklar would prefer to drain every bit of fun out of the book and make it dry like a brittle, dessicated autumn leaf - or perhaps he is just not funny. Plus, it doesn't make a book more important by sounding important - he could have shed half of the weight of the book by being more concise and direct to the reader rather than being circular and mysterious. There are few keynotes concepts in the book but they are buried under layers of fat, and I'm sure it's not a reader's responsibility to have to painstakingly dig out the truths in a book. For a better read, opt for "the Philosophy of Space & Time" by Hans Reichenbach, translated by his wife Maria Reichenbach.

However monumental the book maybe, if it bores the reader to death, the ideas contained in it just never get conveyed. This is one of the most boring books I have ever read (and I can tell you I'm also a frequent reader books laden with heavy and long-winded mathematical/philosophical concepts). I fail to see why Sklar would prefer to drain every bit of fun out of the book and make it dry like a brittle, dessicated autumn leaf - or perhaps he is just not funny. Plus, it doesn't make a book more important by sounding important - he could have shed half of the weight of the book by being more concise and direct to the reader rather than being circular and mysterious. There are few keynotes concepts in the book but they are buried under layers of fat, and I'm sure it's not a reader's responsibility to have to painstakingly dig out the truths in a book. For a better read, opt for "the Philosophy of Space & Time" by Hans Reichenbach, translated by his wife Maria Reichenbach.