I’m assuming you already have some absolutely basic knowledge of the major physical theories, at the level of Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos (which was recommended in another comment). The books I’ll recommend take you deeper into the theories (emphasizing philosophical implications) without excessive mathematics. If you don’t have knowledge at this level, read Greene’s book first. Some of the books I’m suggesting aren’t entirely up to date, but none of them are obsolete. I’m not aware of any more recent books that cover the same material with the same quality. I teach philosophy of physics to non-physics majors, and these are usually among the books I assign (supplemented with recent papers, lecture notes, etc.).
Space-Time: Geroch, General Relativity from A to B
Quantum Mechanics: Albert, Quantum Mechanics and Experience
Statistical Mechanics: Ben-Naim, Entropy and the Second Law: Interpretation and Misss-Interpretations (Supplement with Albert’s Time and Chance if you want to go deeper into the “Arrow of Time” issue)
Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model: Oerter, The Theory of Almost Everything (A pretty superficial book compared to the others on this list, I admit, but I’m not aware of any philosophically deep treatment of QFT that doesn’t presume considerable math knowledge. You could also try Feynman’s QED, which is excellent but very out-dated.)
Cosmology: Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe (Good basic overview of cosmology, but the philosophical speculation doesn’t meet your third requirement. Try Unger and Smolin’s The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time for a counterpoint.)
“Excessive” was probably a poorly chosen word. I meant that the books I listed are the ones that provide the deepest insight into the theories (out of all the books I have seen) within the constraints specified by iarwain (presuming nothing more than high school mathematics). Some of the books teach some slightly more advanced math along the way, because yeah, it’s hard to really comprehend much of GR without at least a basic conception of differential geometry, or understand QM without some idea of linear algebra, but none of the books inundates you with math like The Road to Reality does.
I was questioning whether to keep reading lesswrong; thanks to the questioner and the answerer for reminding me why I should. Books are cheap so I’m buying them all, even if not for all immediate reads. Don’t suppose you teach near upstate New York?
It really depends on what topic you’re interested in. Papers tend to be pretty focused on one question, so if you’re looking for an overview of a subject, books are the way to go. If you’re interested in learning more about some specific problem, I’d be happy to recommend accessible papers if I can think of any.
I’m assuming you already have some absolutely basic knowledge of the major physical theories, at the level of Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos (which was recommended in another comment). The books I’ll recommend take you deeper into the theories (emphasizing philosophical implications) without excessive mathematics. If you don’t have knowledge at this level, read Greene’s book first. Some of the books I’m suggesting aren’t entirely up to date, but none of them are obsolete. I’m not aware of any more recent books that cover the same material with the same quality. I teach philosophy of physics to non-physics majors, and these are usually among the books I assign (supplemented with recent papers, lecture notes, etc.).
Space-Time: Geroch, General Relativity from A to B
Quantum Mechanics: Albert, Quantum Mechanics and Experience
Statistical Mechanics: Ben-Naim, Entropy and the Second Law: Interpretation and Misss-Interpretations (Supplement with Albert’s Time and Chance if you want to go deeper into the “Arrow of Time” issue)
Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model: Oerter, The Theory of Almost Everything (A pretty superficial book compared to the others on this list, I admit, but I’m not aware of any philosophically deep treatment of QFT that doesn’t presume considerable math knowledge. You could also try Feynman’s QED, which is excellent but very out-dated.)
Cosmology: Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe (Good basic overview of cosmology, but the philosophical speculation doesn’t meet your third requirement. Try Unger and Smolin’s The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time for a counterpoint.)
How much mathematics is excessive for this? Physics is made of mathematics.
“Excessive” was probably a poorly chosen word. I meant that the books I listed are the ones that provide the deepest insight into the theories (out of all the books I have seen) within the constraints specified by iarwain (presuming nothing more than high school mathematics). Some of the books teach some slightly more advanced math along the way, because yeah, it’s hard to really comprehend much of GR without at least a basic conception of differential geometry, or understand QM without some idea of linear algebra, but none of the books inundates you with math like The Road to Reality does.
I was questioning whether to keep reading lesswrong; thanks to the questioner and the answerer for reminding me why I should. Books are cheap so I’m buying them all, even if not for all immediate reads. Don’t suppose you teach near upstate New York?
I teach about 8000 miles away from upstate New York, I’m afraid.
Thanks! What are the recent papers that you suggest?
It really depends on what topic you’re interested in. Papers tend to be pretty focused on one question, so if you’re looking for an overview of a subject, books are the way to go. If you’re interested in learning more about some specific problem, I’d be happy to recommend accessible papers if I can think of any.