Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science.(Review)

Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science, by Peter Pesic (Cambridge, Mass: MIT P., 2000; pp. 186. 14.50 [pounds sterling]).

This is a fascinating and well expressed book. It explores how several scientific writers, mainly from around the start of the seventeenth century, represented their personal struggles in the investigation of nature, how they expressed their motivation, and how they regarded the symbolic products of their efforts. For them, nature was a labyrinth to be explored, or a book written in a secret language. Pesic examines metaphors such as these in some detail. He quotes Galileo: `Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, …