Stephen Hawking, present occupant of the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University, is today one of the best known theoretical cosmologists in the world. His important contributions, in collaboration with Roger Penrose, to the physics of black holes are well known, but this does not make comparable to those of Albert Einstein, as some times is affirmed in the mainstream media. In this book, Hawking´s work as presented at the Vatican Study Week on Astrophysical Cosmology (1981), his bestseller “A Brief History of Time” (1988), his lecture on “Gödel and the end of physics” (2002), and “The Grand Design”(2010) are briefly examined. In them many philosophical questions are raised but no rigorous answers are provided. In the second half of the book, chapters on the origin of science in the Christian West, the post-Renaissance scientific revolution, the true pioneers of modern physics put contemporary cosmology in a proper perspective. The authors conclude that contemporary observational data are compatible with a finite, open and contingent universe, rather than with “everything coming out of nothing”. This book puts in a proper historical perspective, contrary to Hawking’s, that the universe is intelligible as attested by the monumental fact of modern science, and, therefore, that it is contingent, and therefore created. Very often, contemporary theoretical cosmologists ignore the crucial contributions made in Medieval Europe to the birth of modern physics. This book intends to bridge the gap in accessible language for the non specialist.
This is an in-depth study of one of the most important and prominent Hua-ch''iao (Overseas Chinese) of twentieth-century Southeast Asian and China OCo Tan Kah-kee (1874OCo1961).For a Chinese immigrant in South-East Asia to make good is not unique, but what is unique in Tan Kah-kee''s case is his enormous contribution to employment and economic development in Singapore and Malaya. He was the only Chinese in history to have single-handedly founded a private university in Amoy and financially maintained it for sixteen years. He was the only Hua-ch''iao of his generation to have led the Chinese in South-East Asia to help China to resist the Japanese invasion in a concerted and coordinated manner. Moreover, he was the only Hua-ch''iao leader to have played both Singapore and China politics and affairs in close quarters, rubbing shoulders with British governors, Chinese officials and commanders. Finally, it is important to point out that Tan Kah-kee was the only Hua-ch''iao in his times to have combined his Pang, community and political power and influences for the advancement of community, regional and national goals.This is an in-depth study of not just Tan Kah-kee per se but also the making of a legend through his deeds, self-sacrifices, fortitude and foresight. This revised edition sheds new light on his political agonies in Mao''s China over campaigns against capitalists and intellectuals. Moreover, it analyses more comprehensively the varied legacies of Tan Kah-kee, including his successors, the style of his non-partisan political leadership, his educational strategy for nation-building, social change and OC the Spirit of Tan Kah-keeOCO, currently in vogue in his home province, Fukien.
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