彭加勒是一个非常伟大的数学家和物理学家。他的介绍这里就不说了。下面是这本书的目录结构。

英文版译者说明 ································ ································ ··············· 1
法文版前言 ································ ································ ······················· 2
第一章 规律的演变 ································ ································ ········ 3
第二章 空间和时间 ································ ································ ······ 19
第三章 空间为什么有三维 ································ ·························· 30
第四章 无限的逻辑 ································ ································ ······ 52
第五章 数学和逻辑 ································ ································ ······ 75
第六章 量子论 ································ ································ ············· 87
第七章 物质和以太之间的关系 ································ ················ 103
第八章 伦理和科学 ································ ································ ···· 117
第九章 道德联盟 ································ ································ ······· 132

下面简单介绍下第一章作者的主要思想，希望大家能感受到其中的魅力。
作者的主要疑问来自于物理规律本身是不是随着时间在进行改变。如果规律确实实在发生变化我们如何证明这件事情？
首先所谓的规律是什么？它是前因和后果之间、世界的目前状态和直接后继状态之间的恒定联系。通过这些联系我们可以根据世界在此时的状态推测世界在下一时刻的状态。以此类推可以得到世界在所有时刻的状态。我们如何去了解过去的状态呢？只能通过一些历史遗留到现在的痕迹，然后反推过去这个遗迹当时的状态。但是这个推断的过程还是不能让我们了解过去规律是不是发生了变化。因为推断本身包含了规律本身是不变的假设。

总之，我们无法认识过去，除非我们承认规律不改变；如果我们承认这一点，那么规律演变的问题就毫无意义；如果我们不承认这个条件，那么认识过去的问题便不可能有解，正如与过去有关的所有问题一样。

最后的沉思.pdf