Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time [Paperback]

This book arose out of a series of lectures the author gave under the title of Space, Time and Infinity. It is a philosophical introduction to the questions of space and time, written to stimulate further thought on the paradoxes of these concepts, in other words, to look again at the conceptual questions and puzzles that our ordinary view of space and time presents.

The questions that the author considers include the following: Are space and mind just mental constructions? Is there a fourth spatial dimension? Do parallel worlds exist? Could time run backwards? Might time travel be possible? Could space exist with nothing in it? Could there be space beyond the universe? and, Did time have a beginning?

Le Poidevin guides the reader through these puzzles with lots of wit in an engaging writing style. Best of all, he makes clear the limitations of our ordinary ideas of space and time and provides us with the tools to think about these problems with a broader brush. He does this by using only a modest amount of physics, so no prior knowledge of science or philosophy is required to enjoy the book.

He also deals with the Fine Tuning of the universe. Even slight differences in the fundamental physical features of the universe (such as in the forces that bind atoms together, the masses of particles, electromagnetic equations and the rate of expansion in the early universe) would have made it impossible for life as we know it to evolve in the universe.

Similar thought-provoking books include Small World by Mark Buchanan, Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra, The Universe Next Door by Marcus Chown, Before The Beginning by Martin Rees, Time And Space by Barry Dainton and God's Equation by Amir Aczel.

The Philosophy of Time and the Philosophy of Space are some of the most neglected branches of philosophy to date. Of course it is mainly the natural philosophy of Physics that mainly focuses on the implications and the concept of time and the relation to spatial ontology. This book is a great book for anyone who has the guts to engage with the possibilities, contradictions, and paradoxes of the natural phenomena of time and the relationship to space. We all talk about time, more so than space, and some of us even complain about how little time we have and the like. But do we truly know what time is and how it affects our statements, in terms of controlling tense in our language? This book helps understand the concepts of time and helps us use precise language in terms of talking about the past, present, and future along with space thrown in the mix.

Robin Le Poidevin does humanity a service for writing this book and summarizing the dialogues on time and it's relation to space.

On this discourse Poidevin, delves into concepts in mathematics such as the plausible tension between classical Euclidian space and non Euclidian space as first mentioned by Nikolai Lobachevski. Dimensionality is touched on a bit, in terms of what a dimension really is. Furthermore, the book should really be bought for the discussion of the A Theory of Time and B Theory of Time and McTaggart's proof of the unreality of time. Time travel also has its due portion in the book. Is time travel even possible? Poidevin does an excellent job in presenting plausible time travel scenarios and discussing the paradoxes and nonsense that arises from plausible scenarios of time travel and as always, discussion of the Arrow of Time (the direction of time) is found within this book as well. Even the location of time is mentioned! Is there differing times for different locations in space? Read this book. As always, Zeno and his classical paradoxes of movement and motion are also mentioned within the book and add insight to classical Greek views of time. Especially that of Aristotle. The edge of space is also discussed along with Pythagoras's encounters with space and its difficulties. Even the origins of time and space have their place within this book along with God's relation to time. If you are interested with God and time, then William Lane Craig, another philosopher, has an excellent discourse on this called Time and Eternity: Exploring God's Relationship to Time and a book called God & Time: 4 Views is recommended. Otherwise, stick with this book.

Overall, this book is pretty dense. It is dense enough to entertain and enlighten, but not enough to bore or too technical in its language. It's a historical, mathematical, and mainly philosophical discourse on the debates on space and time form a professional philosopher's out look. If you are tired of reading and hearing horribly oversimplified talk of space and time by natural philosophers like Physicists, then try the general philosophers' take on the issue.

Here is a list of all the Chapters with few sections mentioned (I am not writing all the section names, just some that I think will catch your eyes)

Ch 1. The Measure of All things
Time and the Laws of Nature

Ch 2. Change
Time as Change
Time without Change?

Ch 3. A Box with No Sides?
Aristotle against the Void
Lessons of the Vacuum
The Redundancy of Space
The Search for Absolute Motion

Ch 4. Curves and Dimensions
Euclid Displaced
More than Three Dimensions?

Ch 5. The Beginning and End of Time
Can the Past be Infinite?

Ch 6. The Edge of Space
Is there Space Beyond the Universe?
The Illusion of Infinity

Ch 7. Infinity and Paradox
Zeno: How the Tortoise beat Achilles
Two Responses to Zeno: Infitismals and Finitism
Democritus' Cone

Ch 8. Does Time Pass?
McTaggart's Proof of the Unreality of Time
First Response: Presentism
Second Response: the B - Theory
Why is there only One Present?

Ch 9. The Cinematic Universe
Muybridge's Horse and Zeno's Arrow
No Motion at an Instant?
No Motion in the Present?

Ch 10. Interfering with History
Lost Days
Dilemmas of the Time Traveler
Causation in Reverse

Ch 11. Other Times and Spaces
Probability and the Multiverse

Ch 12. The Arrows of Time
Parallel Causes

And more....

Bravo for Poidevin for writing such and informative work. This book truly deserves a wide audience.

The author is a professor of metaphysics so I suppose it should not have surprised me that this book is almost exclusively a survey of the philosophical conundrums time presents us with. As such it is entertaining and interesting.
However I really cannot fathom how anyone could possibly write a book about time in the 21st century and not mention Relativity theory even once. Because of this omission a lot of the book is hopelessly stuck in 19th century thinking (e.g. when asking the question of whether there is only one "now", which Relativity conclusively refutes, and when talking about whether time can flow at different rates, which we know to be the case for observers who move at different speeds). So, an interesting historical survey, but if you are looking to learn what we *know* about time today look elsewhere.