In this book, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science, Hermann Weyl gives us his insights into the reality of the world in which we live. Actually it is two books, one written in 1926, and the other, included as a series of 5 appendices, written about 1946. The former preceded the sucess of quantum theories and was framed within the concept of classical physics and relativity theory. The second gives an accound of chemistry, biology and genetics according to the quantum view point. These dates show that even the latter pages are not likely to be in harmony with current thought in this field

Weyl considers the sciences from the stand point of the classical philosophers as well as from his own standpoint as a mathematician.

He explains the role of symbols in measurement and in theories and this leads to a discussion of the limitations of our knowledge. Another gem in this mine of ideas is a particularly simple explanation of the meaning and derivation of Goedel's theorem.

An idea that occurs frequently in the book is the wholeness or interconnectedness of the universe. He states "The fact that in nature 'all is woven into one whole,' that space, matter, gravitation, the forces arising from the electromagnetic field, the animate , the inanimate are indissolubly connected strongly supports the belief in the unity of nature.and hence in the unity of scientific method". In the last pages Weyl concludes with a discussion of the general order of the universe and its inconcistency with the atomic view of reality but its explainablity in a framework of wholeness. His views are similar to those expressed by David Bohm in the book Wholeness and the Implicate Order.

Every person curious about the 'real reality' of our world should read at least selected parts of this book. ( )