You Are More Important Than a Quark

Keay Davidson reviews A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics From the Bottom Down, by Robert B. Laughlin.

Still, his thesis reminds us of the great value of something most physicists assume they can live without: philosophy. Behind the seemingly concrete principles, practices and instruments of any laboratory, there are certain philosophical assumptions, often unexamined. In the 19th century physicists were hypnotized by the myth of the cosmic ether, an invisible medium through which light rippled, as waves ripple across a pond. In 1905, Albert Einstein, then a young patent clerk, awakened them. Likewise, Laughlin says, physicists face a philosophical "crisis" over emergence, "a confrontation between reductionist and emergent principles that continues today." In the history of science, philosophical crises often precede scientific revolutions.

The New York Times, June 19, 2005