A World without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Godel and Einstein Paperback – 14 Feb 2006

'A World Without Time' is a scattered, somewhat unfocussed but cheerfully-embracing biographical account of Gödel's early life and work coupled to his richer days as a philosophical-thinking scientist who enjoyed a sociable friendship with Einstein whilst at Princeton. It is occasionally erratically and unintelligibly written, although it does remain addictive. Paradoxically it is also an over-generalised focussing upon Gödel's thinking behind his 1949 essay 'A Remark About The Relationship Between Relativity Theory And Idealistic Philosophy.'
Palle Yourgrau writes sympathetically concerning Gödel's philosophical thoughts - essentially that they have remained largely unrecognised by a scientific community who, in Gödel's own mind, demonstrated a consistent aversion in embracing creatively ground-breaking scientific ideas. Running parallel is Gödel's assertion that philosophical thinkers remained loathe to propound scientific thought at all, even when their philosophical thinking contained valuable logical merit that would have empowered the scientific community by providing a birth-point of pseudo provenance for their own scientific theories - especially those describing the potential physical realities of time itself.
Whether or not the title of the book is designed to entice either a scientific or general readership to explore further; I believe the contents, regrettably, slightly dampen the quest for both - largely due to an obtuse writing style. No science contained here, especially Gödel's attempt to demonstrate that the earthly component itself of space-time theoretical science is, or is not, a separate, usable spatial dimension, or that time itself is nothing more than an illusion, is ever satisfactorily established. Nor does the book find itself any nearer to normalising any of this so-called reality by way of valid, physical science. Indeed, how could anyone? Therefore any inferred cerebral implications, either by Einstein or Gödel, of actual travel within this pseudo-medium that we call 'time' (energised as a topic by Gödel's thinking), must remain the stuff of popular literary invention and entertainment. The general reader who is untutored in advanced physics will almost certainly find the scientific conjecture wearing and convoluted. This is not to say that Gödel was not possessed of a brilliantly neurotic and searching mind, but the author, Palle Yourgrau states his case diffidently, and I believe, uses flawed reasoning. During the 20th century far too much fantastical scientific thinking has centred on Einstein's own labyrinthine and, in real physical terms, scientifically unproven theories concerning time as a so-called '4th Dimension.' For myself, I happen to firmly believe that there is no such extant physical entity or matter as time. The earth spins on its axis, and as it spins it travels elliptically within our solar system around the sun. It travels in a real direction, on a real physical journey (that is hopefully continuous). Exactly as an intelligent Creator God caused it to so act. The years we count are little more than a measurement of the number of physical revolutions which our world has accomplished on its physical journey. I believe that Gödel probably understood this perfectly well and used his own philosophical thoughts to express the rather obvious truth that time, in point of fact, does not actually exist at all. In regard to this, at least, the author has done mankind a greater service than Gödel could ever have hoped for. With more clarity of writing style applied to a better-focussed conclusion, (within such a complex series of conjectured thinking) I would have given the book 5 Stars but nevertheless Palle Yourgrau deserves praise for what he has given us - a book's title that contains a more-than-obvious-truth, although he has done so by way of unnecessary scientific conjecture and artificial reasoning.

This short book introduces the subject of Godel's investigation into the distinction between 'intuitive' time and the 'formal' time used in science, in particular, Einstein's theory of relativity.
On the way, it discusses Godel's incompleteness theorems, and the positivist philosophical agenda for formalising mathematical proof.
It is, accordingly, not a particularly easy read, but the writing style is clear.
The main message of the book is that Godel proved that there exist solutions to Einstein's field equations which describe universes in which time does not exist and that the consequence for us is that our intuitive notion of time must be ideal (i.e. based only on our particular internal experience and not an actual feature of the physical universe ).
This is a shocking result which seems to have been swept under the carpet, Hawking himself attempted an unconvincing ad hoc 'fix' to the issue.
A reviewer below is wrong in stating the Godel universe is profoundly different to our own, in fact it is possible that we live in an expanding Godel universe
I found this to be a fascinating and thought provoking book with few faults other than the last chapter which is a bit of a crusade against philosophical detractors. I agree with a comment below that some knowledge of Godel's theorem and relativity will make the book easier to assimilate.

In 1949 Kurt Gödel, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the twentieth century, was asked to contribute to a festive book commemmorating the seventieth birthday of his good friend Albert Einstein. He decided on some fooling around with general relativity and succeeded in constructing a universe without time. It is just possible that time is an illusion and travelling through it is perfectly feasible.

Einstein was impressed, though slightly disapppointed that his theory hadn't been the final word on time after all. Both giants of science continued to discuss the possibility the rest of their lives. The rest of science has found the idea so counterintuitive that it has hardly been explored.

This is what Palle Yourgrau, a professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, stands to correct. Despite his fine nose for human interest, which he sprinkles liberally over the pages, this is not a book for beginners, as it requires more than a smithereen of background (but not a phd) in modern physics and mathematical logic. For those who wield some command of these subjects 'A world without time' is a delightfully original read.

As an introduction to the works of Godel post "Incompleteness" and the philosophical implications of Relativity (and no, I didn't know those subjects were connected until I read it), this little book is invaluable. Clearly, however, inside the Academy these are hotly contested issues, as the reviews below indicate, and the author gets his retaliation in first with some (almost) ad hominem attacks on his critics. All power to him, I say. It's an old joke to say academic disputes are so vicious because so little is at stake but this one seems really to matter. If this book can help elevate the reputation of one of the greatest minds of the past century to the status it deserves, it will have done no small thing.

A most enjoyable and informative read. The author has offers insights into the views of these two intellectual giants, sets their beliefs in the broader context of science and philosophy in the 20th century, and gives good account of the unresolved issue of the reality of time. Knowing little of philosophy, I am unable to gauge the significance of Godel's philosophical views but get a clear sense of