Böcker av Allan Anforth

The rise of rhetoric is a danger to liberal democracies and a powerful tool for the would-be autocrat. The danger lies in the ease with which sizeable parts of the population are persuaded to adopt the most implausible propositions, on the basis of nothing more than the assertions of a self-interested orator. On a daily basis it is these same techniques that drive all manner of conspiracy theories.The author hopes that by listing and explaining some of these rhetorical devices, the more gullible members of the public may recognise when they are being manipulated and resist it

This book questions the extent to which some physical scientists may have unintentionally misused the English language to varying degrees, in arriving at theories that are presented to the world as being statements of fact about the universe.The book focuses primarily on large- and small-scale extremes i.e. cosmological theories and quantum theories. It deals with the core concepts of 'time' and 'space' as they are presented in the theories under consideration.As a demonstration of the sensitivity of the outcome of physical modelling to the assumptions made, the book presents an alternative cosmological model based on some altered physical assumptions that see the much-vaunted inconsistency between General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory, disappear.