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Tallis in Wonderland

In Measure Began Our Might

Raymond Tallis takes the measure of measurement.

In his book The First Three Minutes (1977), physicist Stephen Weinberg famously proclaimed that “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.” The advance of science, it appears, results in what the sociologist Max Weber, echoing Friedrich Schiller, poignantly characterized as ‘the disenchantment of the world’.

For Weinberg, it is worth noting, ‘the universe’ is the physical world, and the physical world is the world of physics. Given that physics advances by setting aside purpose, meaning, value, not to speak of secondary qualities such as colour or sound and the viewpoints of subjects, his conclusion is entirely unsurprising. But it does provide an opportunity to remind ourselves of the remarkable, and, I would submit, enchanting path that has led to Weinberg’s terminal disenchantment.

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