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The End of Certainty Hardcover – August 17, 1997

by Ilya Prigogine (Author)

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Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century. All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. Nevertheless, Einstein said that time is an illusion. Nature's laws, as he and Newton defined them, describe a timeless, deterministic universe within which we can make predictions with complete certainty. In effect, these great physicists contended that time is reversible and thus meaningless.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (August 17, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684837056
ISBN-13: 978-0684837055
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #39 in Books > Science & Math > Physics > Chaos Theory
- #64 in Books > Science & Math > Experiments, Instruments & Measurement > Time
- #129 in Books > Science & Math > Physics > Relativity

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Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars

5 star		55%
4 star		28%
3 star		10%
2 star		7%
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A Crucial Piece of the Puzzle

By Peter V. Giansante on August 31, 2001

Format: Hardcover

Many people presume that the integration of various domains of science into a single unified "superscience" will ultimately show that everything reduces to physics. In fact, one earlier reviewer of "The End of Certainty" closed his review saying, "Biology is, in the end, physics."
There is a way in which biology could be "reduced" to physics, but only if we learn to define "physics" very differently than we do today. Prigogine shows why biology CANNOT be reduced to context-independent, deterministic contemporary physics. (Read Robert Rosen's "Essays on Life Itself" for the most profound and fundamental explanation, based on non-integrable, complex, "impredicative loops of efficient causation".)
"The End of Certainty" is an important work because it points toward a revolutionary realignment of fundamental physical principles, theoretical perspectives, and even scientific methodology. In fact, it draws together many of the crucial elements that ultimately will result in the inevitable emergence of a fundamentally transformed model of scientific epistemology. It's an important snapshot of a pivotal stage in the evolution of scientific knowledge.
There has not been a coherent major shift in the foundational paradigms of physical science since the emergence of relativity and quantum physics in the early 20th century. The pioneers of those physical models, if not the models themselves, behaved as feuding brothers from the start. That disputatious relationship is perhaps best typified by Einstein's famous rebuke of the indeterminacy of quantum physics: "God does not play dice with the universe.Read more ›

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I admire Prigogine's patience...

By Zentao on October 10, 2000

Format: Hardcover

Over the years (and it's been something close to 60 of them) Prigogine has almost single-handedly defined non-equilibrium thermodynamics. This book presents an overview of how he thinks quantum theory should be interpreted in order to give a direction to the "arrow of time".
This book is not for those who don't have some background in thermodynamics and quantum theory, particularly in the solving of the Schrodinger wave equation. Those expecting a Gleick-like "Chaos" will likely put this one down in frustration after about three chapters since Prigogine has put a fair amount of theory in this book.
For a slim volume there is a lot of food for thought here. I had to go look up some old textbooks a read over some of my first-year quantum theory and math. I think the views that Prigogine just starts to develop in the final chapter deserve a book of their own for discussion. I know from hints Prigogine has "dropped" in interviews that he holds some interesting views on general philosophy.
People interested in the current state of Prigogine's theories then this book does an excellent job of centralizing them. His development of critical elements is deep enough to force one to get enough of a theoretical grasp to have some sense of the philosophy that comes.
For those looking to further their knowledge of the general applications of dissipative structures, I highly reccommend Jantsch's "The Self-Organizing Universe" as a good place to start along with some of Chaitin's work in algorithmic theory and Perlovsky's work in cybernetics.

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New physics for 21st century

By Juan R. Gonzalez-Alvarez on August 13, 2003

Format: Hardcover

I did buy this book some time ago and then I was fascinated. I studied the basis of his theory, but unfortunately, Prigogine passed away recently, before I can discuss with he some topics in more detail.
The greater part of the book is written in a natural style, but some sections are highly mathematical even for the majority of scientists! This mathematical presentation has a curious explaining. There are several version of Prigogine's theory, but the first versions had been "abandoned", and then Prigogine details the new approach: "Star-unitary theory for LPS outside of Hilbert space".
An earlier reviewer said that the book provides a solution to three of the most important problems in science: (1) Time's arrow. (2) The measurement problem in QM. (3) The existence of freewill. Precisely, I am working in those and other questions, and I do not believe that claim was completely correct (and perhaps Prigogine believed the same, because in his last communication, said me "The questions that you ask are very difficult."). In my opinion, the novel theory is conflictive both in mathematical and physical details, but I consider that, at least, the aim of the School is correct one. Irreversibility and uncertainty are two fundamental features of our universe. I see that orthodox physics (including particle physics and the so-called String-M theory) is incorrect and/or inapplicable. I believe that, whereas other "popular" books (The Quark and The Jaguar, The Elegant Universe, etc.) should be "relics" in 21st century physics, Prigogine's book will be then a basic work.
The contributions of Prigogine's physics to the understanding in other disciplines, as chemistry, are not clear.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

HOPE YOU ARE VERY SMART !

Perhaps due to my lack mental strength - this book was not THE END OF CERTAINTY for me - it's just DIFFICULT reading.

Published 4 months ago by ratty

quite the mind stretcher

fine book

Published 5 months ago by Lou A. Adams

Five Stars

Great book, extremely technical

Published 5 months ago by Kory

Five Stars

excellent!

Published 6 months ago by chung hsieh

Who knows any follow up of Prigogine latest theory?

I have just read the book (Italian translation) thirty years after my trial thesis about thermodynamics of irreversible processes with a professor which was a post-doc of Prigogine... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Alfredo Tifi

Superb and necessary read for any physicist, philosopher or layperson...

This is the book that all of today's physicists should read. The more I learn about the impressive edifice of modern physics the more I learn that it's built on quick sand due to... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Tam Hunt

Interesting but the book offer little alternatives to think out ...

Interesting but the book offer little alternatives to think out of the logic that create the unsustainable problem we are facing as a society

Published 14 months ago by Erik M. Brenes M.

i LOVED this book

i LOVED this book, even though for large sections i didn't know what the hell he was talking about. he's a math wizard and has an amazing mind, but the clarity of his reasoning is... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Malcoln_Rodgers

Great book!

After finishing the book, I realized how clever/ironic the cover is..
a Newton's apple dropped from the "arrow of the time"...

Published 23 months ago by Amber LIn

Thought provoking ideas - even without the maths.

At the heart of this book is a challenge to the bedrock of our current scientific thinking. Newton's science, and indeed that of quantum physics contains no arrow of time. Read more

Published on September 3, 2011 by Steven Unwin

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