What is the universe, which we regard as "ours" not only because we live in it but because it produced us? This book is in the form of a dialogue on cosmology between the astrophysicist Michel Cassé and the philosopher Edgar Morin. It is a brilliant exercise, allying wide-ranging cultural erudition with scientific rigour. In their survey of revolutions in modern physics in the areas of emptiness and the invisible, chaos and order, time and history, the authors refer not only to scientists such as Gödel, Hubble and Prigogine, but also to ancient mythology (Genesis, Amerindian religions), poetry (Shakespeare, Apollinaire) and philosophy (Heraclitus, Spinoza, Nietzsche). This book is a model of what an intimate, true meeting between science and philosophy should be. It is a profound work which revels in the joy of knowledge and restores us to the universe that is in all of us, as it celebrates the "anthropo-cosmos".

Michel Cassé is an astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy Commission and an associate research fellow at the Institut d’Astrophysique, in Paris. He is the author of numerous highly regarded works, including Du Vide et de la Création and Généalogie de la Matière.

An internationally renowned writer and thinker known for his social and political commitment, Edgar Morin has held many prominent academic and research positions. His works — particularly his magnum opus, La Méthode — have played a major role in contemporary thought.