Life Is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe

by Johnjoe McFadden

Overview

"In short, Life Is Simple is enthralling."—Michael Blastland, Prospect

A biologist argues that simplicity is the guiding principle of the universe
 
Centuries ago, the principle of Ockham’s razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of discoveries, taking us from a geocentric cosmos to quantum mechanics and DNA, arguing that simplicity has revealed profound answers to the greatest mysteries. This is no coincidence. From the laws that keep a ball in motion to those that govern evolution, simplicity, he claims, has shaped the universe itself. And in McFadden’s view, life could only have emerged by embracing maximal simplicity, making the fundamental law of the universe a cosmic form of natural selection that favors survival of the simplest. Recasting both the history of science and our universe’s origins, McFadden transforms our understanding of ourselves and our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541620445
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	660,890
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Johnjoe McFadden is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey, where he studies the genetics of microbes that cause infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis. He is the author of Quantum Evolution and the co-author of Life on the Edge, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He lives in London with his wife and son.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Discovery

1 Of Scholars and Heretics 13

2 The Physics of God 31

3 The Razor 45

4 How Simple Are Rights? 61

5 The Kindling 73

6 The Interregnum 86

Part II The Unlocking

7 The Heliocentric but Hermetic Cosmos 107

8 Breaking the Spheres 119

9 Bringing Simplicity Down to Earth 143

10 Atoms and Knowing Spirits 156

11 The Notion of Motion 178

12 Making Motion Work 189

Part III Life's Razors

13 The Vital Spark 203

14 Life's Vital Direction 224

15 Of Peas, Primroses, Flies and Blind Rodents 250

Part IV The Cosmic Razor

16 The Best of All Possible Worlds? 269

17 A Quantum of Simplicity 283

18 Opening Up the Razor 299

19 The Simplest of All Possible Worlds? 314

Epilogue 338

Acknowledgements 343

Credits 344

Notes 345

Index 363

Editorial Reviews

"The 14th-century Franciscan friar William of Occam saw the importance of finding the simplest explanation for any phenomenon—the principle known as Occam’s Razor. Johnjoe McFadden explores this revolutionary approach to how the brain apprehends a complex universe, and its consequences across human history."—Wall Street Journal

“Like a talented stylist or editor, courageous scientists have identified what is redundant ... and promptly scratched it out. McFadden’s book brings this observation to life using two millennia of scientific advancement, never castigating those who were wrong, but instead highlighting how they helped to shape the correct answers that came later.”
 —Popular Mechanics

“In a conspiracy-laden world, McFadden’s argument, that simple explanations hold true, will appeal to historians and the scientifically minded.”
 —Library Jounal

“thoroughly fascinating . . . breath-taking in its comprehensiveness and clarity”—The Irish Times

If you are at all interested in the history of ideas, this is a fabulous read. Even after you’ve taken a few detours through other material to become better oriented in the controversy over what exactly he’s good for, William plausibly still stands as a daring, original figure who deserves a place in the Pantheon, and McFadden has done a great service in bringing the whole William and his influence to wider attention. In short, Life Is Simple is enthralling. —Michael Blastland, Prospect (UK)

"The most sheerly enjoyable history of science of recent years."—Simon Ings, The Spectator (UK)

“In LIFE IS SIMPLE, geneticist Johnjoe McFadden offers a breezy but well-researched look at how the razor has inspired some of science’s biggest ideas…his examples illustrate with persuasive power how ‘simplicity continues to present us with the most profound, enigmatic and sometimes unsettling insights’ into how the universe works.” 
 —Scientific American

“With flair and accessibility, McFadden walks readers through Occam’s many intellectually revolutionary ideas...A dense, provocative, and satisfying foray into the history of science.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A compelling assessment of an idea many of us know but few deeply understand.”—John Keogh, Booklist

“Recasting both the history of science and our universe's origins, McFadden transforms our understanding of ourselves and our world."—Irish Tech News (UK)

“Occam’s razor, like Hobson’s choice and Schrödinger’s cat, is a phrase that’s entered the language. We know more or less what it means without necessarily knowing anything about its inventor or realising the immense power it has as a philosophical and scientific principle. LIFE IS SIMPLE describes brilliantly the context in which William of Occam lived and worked, and the transforming effect that his simple-seeming doctrine has had on the development of our understanding of nature and the universe."—Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy

“Original and profound.”
 —Jim al-Khalili, author of The World According to Physics and Life on the Edge

“I found myself captured by the central premise: science, though perceived as complicated, is actually the pursuit of simplicity. The world is currently waking up to the complexities of science and its role in our world, and this book is an enlightening aid to that new understanding."—Michael Brooks, author of 13 Things that Don’t Make Sense

“For all its technical triumphs, science does not take place in a cultural vacuum. McFadden’s wonderful and thoroughly-researched account of the history of ideas reveals how simplicity as an overarching principle weaves through all the sciences, telling us something profound about the nature of reality. His vivid descriptions and clear exposition make the subject come alive, and resonate with significance. This is one of the best science books I have read in a decade.”

 

—Paul Davies, Regents’ Professor of Physics at Arizona State University and author of What’s Eating the Universe?

"Johnjoe McFadden’s delightfully lucid book is itself a model of deceptive simplicity. The words glide off the page in this trenchant analysis of nature’s complexities that brings fresh life to centuries of scientific discovery and also points the way towards a clearer future."

—Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and award-winning author of Science: A Four Thousand Year History

“Life is Simple is a history that takes you through many centuries of understanding the changing language and philosophy of science. I highly recommend you buy it.”—Robin Ince, broadcaster and author of The Importance of Being Interested

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

McFadden (genetics, Univ. of Surrey; Quantum Evolution) elucidates Occam's Razor, a bedrock scientific principle, which says the simplest explanation that accounts for all known facts is the better one. When the concept was coined by a 14th-century friar, Occam's Razor referred to removing philosophy and science from the influence of religion. After Occam, McFadden argues, revolutionary thinkers abandoned their era's accepted theories, which had become cluttered with correctives meant to account for new data and instrumentation. He surveys the effect on centuries of global scientific progress, including the research of 19th-century Indigenous Guahibo scientists on the plains of Venezuela and of Renaissance-era European scientists. Occam's Razor often requires a shift in perspective (for example, from an Earth-centered universe to a Sun-centered one), simplifying processes and predictions, McFadden argues; therefore Occam underpins paradigm shifts in the natural sciences, is integral to the scientific method, and drives the quest for Grand Unified Theories. VERDICT In a conspiracy-laden world, McFadden's argument, that simple explanations hold true, will appeal to historians and the scientifically minded.—Wade Lee-Smith, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

Library Journal

★ 2021-08-18
The profound influence of Occam’s razor on the development of science, from astronomy to zoology.

Occam’s razor, the brainchild of Franciscan friar William of Occam, states that “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” Models, theories, and hypotheses should be shaved to their essentials—keep it simple. “Simplicity,” writes McFadden in this meaty, historically colorful account, “is…what separates science from the myriad other ways of making sense of the world.” Indeed, simplicity “is not just a tool of science alongside experimentation, it is as central to science as numbers are to mathematics or notes to music.” The author follows the razor through “a selective account of key ideas and innovations that exemplify its importance and illustrate its use.” With flair and accessibility, McFadden walks readers through Occam’s many intellectually revolutionary ideas, from his refusal to multiply Aristotle’s universals to his disagreement with Thomas Aquinas over the scientific nature of theology. For Occam, hypotheses were provisional and probabilistic, vulnerable to disproof. He was also a believer in apostolic poverty and felt that greed gave rise to the subjective right of ownership, then laws to protect ownership, and then rulers to enforce the laws of ownership, thus perverting the natural state that should guide the human condition. (This section features particularly illuminating and vivid writing.) Occam did not insist that the world was simple, nor that all simplicities are the same; rather, when we engage in reasoning about a particular scenario, we should not multiply the various aspects involved “beyond necessity.” McFadden also smoothly integrates elements of spirituality into his historical discussion, from Franciscan beliefs to the philosophy of Copernicus, “whose trust in simplicity was well rewarded,” writes the author. “With Occam’s razor in hand, even mystics, like Copernicus, could find the path toward modern science.”

A dense, provocative, and satisfying foray into the history of science.

Kirkus Reviews