The Infinite Tortoise: The Curious Thought Experiments of History's Great Thinkers

by Joel Levy

A clear, concise and fascinating guide to philosophical thought experiments and how they've shaped our understanding of the world.

From Plato's Cave to Descartes' Demon, and from Zeno's paradoxes to Hilbert's Hotel, great thinkers have used thought experiments and paradoxes to try and work out complex ideas in the simplest way possible.

Perhaps the most famous thought experiment is that of Zeno's Achilles and the tortoise. If both Achilles and the tortoise move at constant speed, why will Achilles never catch up with the tortoise when the tortoise starts ahead of him? Zeno argues that when Achilles reaches the point where the tortoise started the race, the tortoise will have already moved on. And as Achilles runs on to where the tortoise was last, when he reaches that point the tortoise has moved again. Therefore Achilles will never catch up with the tortoise as the distance he must run gets smaller and smaller and each time he has less and less time to run.

Starting in Ancient Greece, Joel Levy guides us through the mind-bending world of thought experiments and their role in revealing the complexity of morality, exploring the limitations and the infinite possibilities of the human mind.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Science

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Joel Levy is a writer and journalist specializing in science and history. He is the author of over a dozen books, including The Little Book of Conspiracies and Scientific Feuds: From Galileo to the Human Genome Project. Phobiapedia is his first book for children.

Reviews

[Sam Middleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly engrossing and thought-provoking little book.

Its biggest strength is its structure, which Levy has nailed down perfectly. The book is split into four sections, on the natural world, the mind, morality, and knowledge acquisition. Within each of these, Levy selects a series of influential thought experiments, setting each out one by one, discussing its origin, implications, influence and critiques. These are short and snappy accounts, communicated clearly in leymans terms. The intelligence in Levy's writing is most apparent in its ability to convey a narrative within each section that links the individual thought experiments together to demonstrate development in scientific opinion around the section's topic.

I do think that the book's concise nature does let it down in the second half of the first section, where quantum physics is discussed. For me, the concepts presented were too difficult and reliant on jargon to be effectively presented in such a limited number of words. I found myself having to re-read passages before eventually moving on with only a partial understanding of what was being presented.

However, the rest of the book, with a special mention for the section on the mind, provides a really engaging reading experience.

[Oscar Despard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book. Ranging from science to justice, language to personal identity, it successfully combines these various ideas into one book. Many of the thought experiments were of great salience to modern issues, such as an extremely interesting one about abortion. This is an easy read, but by no means a shallow one; I’m certain that I shall revisit this book, and mull over some of the ideas it raises again. 'The Infinite Tortoise' is a worthwhile read, and I would happily recommend it to a friend.

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Full of interesting fact and figures. After a long time read a book about great thinkers. Enjoyed

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Infinite Tortoise" is a book about philosophy in general terms and its most popular thought experiments, which some of the readers should know already even from school and from the basic philosophy course from high school. I quite enjoyed this book but I don't think it is for everyone - rather for those who do enjoy philosophy and are curious about interesting but sometimes abstract ideas. The language of the book wasn't the easiest, and sometimes I needed to seek explanantion with Uncle Google to understand what to author is writing about. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading this book - I just had to educate myself during reading. It definitely requires lond and cautious reading, so I do recommend to read it bit by bit and not rush into finishing it as soon as possible because one of the purposes of this book would be lost somewhere without understanding and considering certain issues.

[Michael Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction to these thought experiments. I finally understand the theory of relativity! Very cool.

[Georgy Hadwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those nice books you can dip into, choose a conundrum and happily chew on it for the rest of evening. I am sure that proper philosophy writers would condemn this as "lite" as each idea was not expanded in great depth but was a taster or a catalyst for testing out moral and ethical stance and how defensible that really is. Levy writes in a straightforward way about a range of so called thought experiments and his coverage of major thinkers is quite surprising. I didn't realise for example that James Clark Maxwell was aware of atomic structure to the point he could envisage the creation of a situation where entropy is not conserved. I have to say that whilst I grasp the idea of gravity as the effect of larger bodies on smaller ones it does not explain the analogy of the rubber sheet which is distorted by the heaver masses to created these effects. Rubber sheets behave the way they do due to ....gravity which we now know as space time ...and so it goes. I don't think you need to have a science background to really enjoy a dabble through modern ideas as I did.

[Amie-Rose Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, high-level introduction to some of history's most famous thought experiments.

[Venky · Rating 2 out of 5]

From time immemorial, thought experiments have been employed as a platform from which to springboard towards seminal discoveries and thought provoking concepts. Thought experiments have distinguished themselves in a multitude of disciplines ranging from Physics, to Humanities and from Law to Mathematics. Prima facie appearing to be either extremely trivial or incredibly complex, these thought experiments are a monumental tribute to the spontaneous epiphanies of great philosophers, capable scientists and genius Mathematicians, amongst others.

In "The Infinite Tortoise" (the title in itself being a thought experiment formulated by the pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher, Xeno to signify a race between a tortoise and the fabled hero Achilles), Joel Levy sets out a collection of thought experiments shaping the collective thinking of mankind. These famous experiments are described in a simple, easy and understandable fashion although some of the more obstinate ones such as Schroedinger's Cat and Descartes's demon tax the intellect a bit more than what would be desirable!

On the whole the Infinite Tortoise makes for an engrossing read and piques a great deal of curiosity.

[lauren mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a really cool book! did it take me three months to finish yes maybe it did but i was in a slump. i preferred the sciencey bits to the ethics and philosophy bits but they were explained so well that even i could understand it. very interesting and i’d definitely read it again.