Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
The Beginning of Infinity summary
David Deutsch
Explanations That Transform the World
20 mins
Table of Contents
The Beginning of Infinity
Summary of 10 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 10
Knowledge is not only derived from experience, but also from theories.
No human has ever stepped on the surface of a star, let alone visited its core. And yet scientists know a lot about what’s happening deep inside stars, light years away.
How come?
Because experiencing is not the only way of knowing.
Empiricism is a theory that claims we derive all our knowledge from sensory experience – but as you’ll see, this is wrong.
Empiricists imagine that our mind is like a blank piece of paper on which sensory experiences are written. This would mean that we are the passive recipients of knowledge, not its creators.
But contrary to the empiricist view, our knowledge can’t be based on individual observations alone.
For instance, even though you’ve seen the sun rise repeatedly, you don’t base your knowledge that it will rise tomorrow solely on these observations. If you did, on a cloudy day you’d assume the sun was not rising because you couldn’t see it!
Moreover, appearances can be deceptive. For example, the Earth looks and feels as if it is immobile, even though it is really rotating.
So although experience is essential to science, it is not the source from which knowledge is derived. If it was, our knowledge of the stars, for example, would be limited to what we learn from gazing at the night skies.
Instead, the real source of our knowledge is theory and conjecture.
Consider the stars again: the fact that at their core is an energy source equivalent to billions of power plants is something we can’t see. We know it only from theory.
Such scientific theories are derived from conjectures – guesswork and speculation – which can be tested by experience in the form of observations and experiments.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Beginning of Infinity?
Key ideas in The Beginning of Infinity
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is The Beginning of Infinity about?
Everyday, we benefit from huge advances in both scientific theory and practice. What triggered this progress? In The Beginning of Infinity (2011) – a journey through the fundamental fields of science and philosophy – physicist David Deutsch argues that all progress results from one single human activity: the quest for explanations. Human creativity opens up limitless opportunities for progress, making knowledge the “beginning of infinity.”
Best quote from The Beginning of Infinity
The harm that can flow from any innovation that does not destroy the growth of knowledge is always finite; the good can be unlimited.
—David Deutsch
Who should read The Beginning of Infinity?
- Fans of science and philosophy
- Anyone fascinated by the power of knowledge and creativity
- Readers interested in the future of our species
Categories with The Beginning of Infinity
Books like The Beginning of Infinity
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked
Start growing with Blinkist now
28 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers