by Sir Karl Popper This is a great book, and an exciting book. I say so even though I happen to dis agree with the author in many minor points and one or two major points. Some of the minor points are merely terminological, and therefore very minor. I dislike the term 'dialectic', because of its use since Hegel and Marx; and I dislike the term 'gravitism', perhaps without a good reason. Thus I dislike the name which Professor Gal-Or has given to his theory. But the theory seems to me a great and a very beauti ful theory, so far as I can judge. Other minor points of disagreement are connected with Gal-Or's original and remarkable views of the great philosophers, including Spinoza and Kant. A major point of disagreement is that Gal-Or, following Einstein, is a scientific determinist, while I cannot but regard determinism as a modem super stition. Of course, he may be right and I may be completely mistaken. I mention these critical points rather in order to emphasize how strongly I am impressed by Professor Gal-Or's great book. Even in the very unlikely case that, wherever we disagree, he should be in the wrong and I right, even if that should be the case (which is improbable in the extreme), it would remain a great book: readable, worth reading and enlightening; with a most fascinating cosmological story of time, expansion, and gravitation.

This book addresses foundational questions raised by observational and theoretical progress in modern cosmology. As the foundational volume of an emerging academic discipline, experts from relevant fields lay out the fundamental problems of contemporary cosmology and explore the routes toward finding possible solutions, for a broad academic audience.

Did the universe originate from a "big bang" as argued by leading astrophysicists and others? Or does some other theory more accurately describe its beginnings? Are there other forms of life in the universe? What about other universes? This volume discusses these and other topics in this hotly debated area where philosophy and science meet.

Inflationary cosmology has been developed over the last twenty years to remedy serious shortcomings in the standard hot big bang model of the universe. This textbook, first published in 2005, explains the basis of modern cosmology and shows where the theoretical results come from. The book is divided into two parts; the first deals with the homogeneous and isotropic model of the Universe, the second part discusses how inhomogeneities can explain its structure. Established material such as the inflation and quantum cosmological perturbation are presented in great detail, however the reader is brought to the frontiers of current cosmological research by the discussion of more speculative ideas. An ideal textbook for both advanced students of physics and astrophysics, all of the necessary background material is included in every chapter and no prior knowledge of general relativity and quantum field theory is assumed.

This book is a collection of contributions examining cosmology from multiple perspectives. It presents articles on traditional Native American and Chinese cosmologies and traces the historical roots of western cosmology from Mesopotamia and pre-Socratic Greece to medieval cosmology.

This volume is a comprehensive collection of critical essays on The Taming of the Shrew, and includes extensive discussions of the play's various printed versions and its theatrical productions. Aspinall has included only those essays that offer the most influential and controversial arguments surrounding the play. The issues discussed include gender, authority, female autonomy and unruliness, courtship and marriage, language and speech, and performance and theatricality.