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I rather enjoyed this essay, not because I am into theology, but because I also see the value of old books. I think that I am a bit of a heretic (if I can use
by FiatLuxDave 8y ago
I rather enjoyed this essay, not because I am into theology, but because I also see the value of old books. I think that I am a bit of a heretic (if I can use that word in a theology thread) because I strongly believe that there is advantage to be gained by reading old books of... science!
It is often presumed that because we learn new things as time goes on, and old theories are discarded as new information comes to light, that there is not much value in reading older science books. After all, isn't half of that stuff wrong? But similar to how Jack says how one can learn about different flavors of Christianity by stepping out of his own century, and thereby how much they have in common, I feel that by reading the original works of Millikan, Carnot, Gibbs, or Einstein, that you get a much better idea of the perspective that developed the theories we see as so cut-and-dried today.
- enriquto 8y agoSome old articles in physics are surprisingly concise. There is no point in reading a modern 300 page book on special relativity when you can just read "on the electrodynamics of moving bodies" which is 23 pages and self-contained.
- whatshisface 8y agoI can't speak for the specific book you're talking about, but there are definitely a lot to say about relativity that has been discovered since the time of Eisenstein.
- FiatLuxDave 8y agoWhile it is true that more has been discovered about relativity since Einstein's time, that doesn't mean there isn't value in reading Einstein. When you approach an idea which is new to you, it's good to read something written for newcomers. When Einstein wrote, everyone was a newcomer. As such, his work is remarkably approachable considering how difficult the subject is. While now I tend to think about special relativity using Minkowski space (which I find to be the easiest mental construct for me), my 12-year-old self found all that stuff in Einstein's Relativity about trains and clocks very helpful in building intuition about relativity.
- whatshisface 8y agoAs a counterpoint, I thought (and still think to this day) that the trains and clock stuff is hard to follow, but I understood it easily as soon as I saw it in terms of coordinates.
- Koshkin 8y agoNot a lot, actually. Einstein (and a few other people before him) did pretty much all there was to it.
- skymuse 8y agoOld mathematics books are also interesting. Really cool to see how notation has evolved over centuries of mathematical inquiry. Right now I'm reading "The World of Mathematics, Volume One" and it is quite a relaxing read when starting the day with a good coffee.
- rossdavidh 8y agoI have read several of the original books of Charles Darwin, and found it both entertaining and intellectually stimulating. Still definitely worth reading, even though (because?) a lot has been learned since then.
- veddox 8y agoI started reading the "Origin of species", but found it very long-winded. Going to give "The Voyage of the Beagle" a try soon, hope that is better...
- brightball 8y agoI enjoy reading old books to see how little people have really changed over time fwiw.
- spenczar5 8y agoI like doing this too, but man, it can be really hard to follow old math and physics literature. Newton’s explanation of the laws of motion, which doesn’t use anything resembling modern notation or terminology, was extremely difficult for me to follow. You won’t find any “F=ma” in there. Maxwell’s laws of electricity and magnetism are even harder. Today, “Maxwell’s Laws” refers to four equations, each quite brief. In his original paper, though, they are a system of 20 simultaneous equations with 20 variables with a dizzying amount of bookkeeping to keep track of x- y- and z- dimensions, because the curl and divergence operators hadn’t really been invented yet.
- cvwright 8y agoOne of my favorite examples of this "genre" is Claude Shannon's "Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems," from 1949. http://netlab.cs.ucla.edu/wiki/files/shannon1949.pdf http://netlab.cs.ucla.edu/wiki/files/shannon1949.pdf Speaking as someone who is not a formally trained cryptographer, most introductory material on the topic is pretty terrible. Finally stumbling across Shannon's early work, many years after starting in security, was like a breath of fresh air.
- hnuser355 8y agoThis is practiced at St. John’s school or whatever where I believed students are made to read that comic sections book, newton principia, that book about blood
- ziotom78 8y agoI fully agree! But, as somebody else said, it can be difficult to read old literature, as mathematical notation and terms are things that have evolved significantly in the last centuries. There are two "new" references about "old" physics literature I particularly enjoyed: - "The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus," by O. Gingerich, about Copernicus' book "De revolutionibus." - "A Student’s Guide Through the Great Physics Texts," by K. Kuehn (4 volumes). It presents many original papers by Newton, Galileo, Maxwell, etc., together with study questions and exercises.
- veddox 8y agoAbsolutely. I found reading A. v. Humboldt absolutely fascinating. (He has the added merit of not only having been a brilliant scientist, but also a gifted prose writer.) And James Watson's "The Double Helix" was an intriguing insight into a period in biology when much of what we take for granted was just being discovered. One gains a deeper understanding for any system of thought when one learns how it came to be.
- auxbuss 8y agoIndeed. re Alexander von Humboldt: Andrea Wulf’s, The Invention of Nature[0], is an excellent overview of his work and impact. It's quite shocking how little he is known; somewhat similar to James Clerk Maxwell. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23995249-the-invention-of-nature https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23995249-the-invention-o...
- veddox 8y agoWulfs book was what got me to read the original Humboldt ;-) I've admired Humboldt ever since I was a child - her book reawakened that interest and gave me the impetus to read some of his own writings.
- veddox 8y agoAlso, "old" doesn't per force imply "outdated". Especially in ecology (or, as it was known, natural history), there's a lot of good work that was done in the 19th century that would deserve much wider attention today. Just yesterday I was identifying a species of African ant. As I researched it, I found myself using taxonomic keys and descriptions published between 50 and 150 years ago - in English, French, German and Latin! Fortunately they had been digitized, and at least partially translated...