Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another

Critical Mass explores the science of interactions and examines whether laws of nature influence human behavior and social organization. The book traces how thinkers from Thomas Hobbes onward have attempted to understand society through scientific principles. Hobbes, seeking stability after England's civil war, applied Galileo's mechanics to develop a theory of government from first principles. Later philosophers including Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte, and John Stuart Mill pursued similar scientific approaches from different political perspectives. Ball demonstrates how physics has recently experienced a revival in social, political, and economic sciences. He shows that understanding human behavior becomes possible when we shift focus from predicting individual actions to examining how individual decisions—in contexts of cooperation or conflict—shape laws, institutions, and customs. The book brings together these emerging ideas and situates them within the historical context of rational inquiry into better ways of living. Winner of the Aventis Prize for Science Books.