In the 17th century, Galileo asserted that we should base our theory of reality on what we can observe rather than pure thought; essentially, he invented what we would come to call "science." But three centuries later, with the introduction of quantum physics, something began to change, and many scientists began looking to the equations first and physical reality second. As a result, David Lindley argues here, much of theoretical physics today is something more akin to the philosophy of Plato than Galileo's time-honored scientific method.

"[An] eye-opening treatise…. Lindley's probing work raises important questions about what science should be, and how it should be approached."—Publishers Weekly