Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) earned a BS from MIT and a PhD from Princeton. From 1942 to 1945, he assisted with the development of the atomic bomb. He then taught at Cornell and Caltech, where he contributed to the theories of superfluidity and quarks. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics.
Raymond Todd is an actor and director in the theater as well as a poet and documentary filmmaker. He plays jazz trombone for the Leatherstocking quartet, an ensemble that gets its name from one of his favorite Blackstone narrations, The Deerslayer. Todd lives in New York.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From the Publisher
How I Found The Meaning of It All One day in June of 1997, I was combing through the Feynman archives in the basement of CalTech. My goal was to see what unpublished gems might lie in the midst of the paper relics stored there since, several years earlier, Addison Wesley Longman's General Publishing Group had signed an agreement with Richard P. Feynman's heirs for the exclusive right to publish material from his Nachlass.
After days of poring through Feynman's handwritten equations, letters, postcards, lecture notes, and other miscellany, I came across a manuscript transcribed from three public lectures (part of the University of Washington's John Danz Memorial Lecture Series), entitled "A Scientist Looks at Society," that Feynman gave in April of 1963. For although Feynman had not yet won the greatest scientific accolade of our time, the Nobel Prize, nor had yet published his bestselling autobiography, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, he was already widely known for his remarkable insight into the laws of nature, for his extraordinary teaching ability, and for his famous three-volume textbook, The Feynman Lectures on Physics. By 1963, Feynman was a much sought after public speaker.
My initial delight after reading these lectures was overshadowed by the nagging fear that they had already been published somewhere. Here was Feynman on science, on society, on religion, on peace and war, on all the concerns of the modern citizen-scientist--surely someone had published this intimate look at the personal thoughts of this most respected figure! And indeed, the same folder disclosed the information that, like the previous Danz Lectures delivered by such luminaries as Fred Hoyle, the resulting manuscript would be published by the University of Washington Press in book form.
Curiously, though, the Feynman bibliography did not list any such publication, nor did Books in Print; nor did Feynman's heirs have any record of the book having been published. Finally, I reached the Press's editor, Emily Pascal (who ironically had been the series editor in 1963 when Feynman had originally given the lectures), who confirmed that the book had never been published. Not only had Feynman not signed the agreement, but he lost interest in the project after editing only the first lecture! Typical Feynman: after completing a project or lecture, he often lost interest in it; his fertile but impatient mind was already off and running after the next "in-te-rest-ing" problem. But what an exciting discovery for Feynman fans, 35 years later!
I quickly consulted with Feynman's heirs, and we signed the publishing agreement for these wonderful, prophetic, and insightful lectures, renamed The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I have.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review
"Now a new generation of readers can sample vintage Feynman on science, religion, morals, and politics. The voice--plain, no-nonsense--is unmistakable; the ideas, too, will be familiar: Feynman is ever the honest and passionate spokesman for science...One of the charms of the late Feynman is that, in his passion to explain, he opened his extraordinary mind to full view by the audience. In this case the audience can and should include students of all ages."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (Book-of-the-Month Club featured selection) "
Feynman was a stranger to pomposity, and there's some splendid stuff here. Perhaps the most striking thing is his rare appreciation of the deep connections linking science and democracy.
-- "New York Times Book Review"
Feynman's voice and personality come through clearly. He talks about real people and their problems, not about philosophical abstractions. He is interested in religion as a way for people to make sense of their lives, but he is not interested in theology.
-- "New York Review of Books"
It requires an unusually strong intellect to remain relevant on a wide variety of social, religious and political issues after thirty-five years. Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, had just such an intellect...These memorable lectures confirm that Feynman's gift of insight extended from the subatomic world to the cosmic, and to the very human as well.
-- "Publishers Weekly"
Richard Feynman was a man of many reputations: brilliant physicist, charismatic teacher, irrepressible raconteur, and...unforgettable character...When Feynman describes the scientist as an acrobat walking 'beautiful tightropes of logic, ' we understand how a generation of young physicists might have been drawn to follow this brilliant Pied Piper out onto the wire, high above the crowd.
-- "Boston Globe" --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Amazon.com Review
In this series of lectures originally given in 1963, which remained unpublished during Richard Feynman's lifetime, the Nobel-winning physicist thinks aloud on several "meta"--questions of science. What is the nature of the tension between science and religious faith? Why does uncertainty play such a crucial role in the scientific imagination? Is this really a scientific age? Marked by Feynman's characteristic combination of rationality and humor, these lectures provide an intimate glimpse at the man behind the legend. "In case you are beginning to believe," he says at the start of his final lecture, "that some of the things I said before are true because I am a scientist and according to the brochure that you get I won some awards and so forth, instead of your looking at the ideas themselves and judging them directly...I will get rid of that tonight. I dedicate this lecture to showing what ridiculous conclusions and rare statements such a man as myself can make." Rare, perhaps. Irreverent, sure. But ridiculous? Not even close.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review
...Feynman was a stranger to pomposity, and there's some splendid stuff here. Perhaps the most striking thing is his rare appreciation of the deep connections linking science and democracy... -- The New York Times Book Review, Timothy Ferris
Feynman's voice and personality come through clearly. He talks about real people and their problems, not about philosophical abstractions. He is interested in religion as a way for people to make sense of their lives, but he is not interested in theology. -- The New York Review of Books, Freeman J. Dyson --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Publishers Weekly
It requires an unusually strong intellect to remain relevant on a wide variety of social, religious and political issues after 35 years. Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, had just such an intellect. Originally delivered as a three-part lecture series at the University of Washington in 1963, this collection touches on such far-ranging topics as the existence or nonexistence of God; the Constitution; and UFOs. At times, Feynman's comments seem uncannily prescient, as when he discusses the dumbing-down of media: "The whole idea that the average person is unintelligent is a very dangerous idea. Even if it's true, it shouldn't be dealt with the way it's dealt with," he says here. As readers of his previous works (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, etc.) know, Feynman, who died in 1988, was never one to shy away from strong opinions: "Incidentally, I must explain that because I am a scientist does not mean that I have not had contact with human beings," he explains. These memorable lectures confirm that Feynman's gift of insight extended from the subatomic world to the cosmic, and to the very human as well. BOMC featured selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. The endearing Feynman, an unusual scientist in that he never regarded ordinary people as too dumb to understand science, nor his Nobel Prize self as too exalted to waste time on them, in 1963 delivered the three popular lectures reprinted in this volume. The first two impart the essence of the scientific approach to the natural world, and the extent to which that approach is applicable to ethics, values, and religion. The third talk is a potpourri of things about popular attitudes about science that Feynman seems to have thought up on his feet, in the presence of the audience, which has the virtue of indicating what listening to the living, animated Feynman must have been like. Chuckle-producing, no doubt, as he spears beliefs in UFOs, advertising, astrology, and faith-healing. But belief in religion--that Feynman respected as a realm unreachable by hardheaded science, whose core value of uncertainty Feynman eloquently explains. A popular follow-up to Feynman's Lost Lecture: Motion of the Planets around the Sun, edited by David Goodstein (1996). Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Library Journal
"I have completely run out of organized ideas, but I have a large number of uncomfortable feelings about the world which I haven't been able to put into some obvious, logical, and sensible form. Perhaps someday, when I find a real deep reason behind them all, I will be able to give them in one sensible lecture instead of this thing." Alas, the world has only this posthumous "thing," a 1963 tripartite lecture by redoubtable Cal Tech professor Feynman (1918-88). And what a disappointment it is. Absent any meaningful insight or reflection, this maundering monolog, delivered largely in a halting, querulous voice at the University of Washington, weaves unevenly through such matters as advertising, astrology, war, paranoia, nuclear radiation, outer space, radio religion, and the beautification [sic] of Mother Seton. The publisher calls it "Pure gold, pure poetry, pure Feynman." It is anything but. Recommended only for academic libraries that are compelled to own Feynman's complete works.?Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. 
