A Brief History of Time Themes

Stephen Hawking’s central mission in A Brief History of Time is to find a unifying scientific theory that will explain the universe itself. This one definitive theory would pull together all the separate theories that scientists have already, under one set of rules that illuminates and predicts how everything in existence works. The book is a chronology of humankind’s efforts so far to determine this unifying theory, as well as ongoing work to find…

The sense of humanity’s genius arises repeatedly in Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time—not only because of the author’s own exhaustive knowledge of the universe’s inner workings, but also because of the vast array of scientists, philosophers, and even lay people whose inspired “eureka” moments have forever changed the way people perceive the world. The book ranges over millennia, covering the history of humanity’s developing comprehension of scientific principles and revealing our…

In A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking discusses scientific inquiry against the wider background of humanity’s search for meaning, in which religion has played a large part. While he represents religion as being increasingly confined to the corners of modern perceptions of the world, primarily occupying the spaces that science cannot yet explain, he does not distain or criticize people’s continued belief in the supernatural. Rather, he shows that people’s interest in both…