By Ulrich Mohrhoff
World Scientific
Hardback: £56 $81
E-book: $105
As a supplement to standard textbooks on quantum mechanics, this introduction to the general theoretical framework of contemporary physics focuses on conceptual, epistemological and ontological issues. The theory is developed by pursuing the question: what does it take to have material objects that neither collapse nor explode as soon as they are formed? The stability of matter thus emerges as the chief reason the laws of physics have the particular form that they do. The first of three parts familiarizes the reader with the basics; the second looks closer; and the final part aims to make epistemological and ontological sense of the theory.