A book which takes the reader on a journey through the worldviews of successive ages: from Plato's philosophy of the "ideal form" and the ancient Chinese philosophy of change, through to the modern scientific view of structure and indeterminacy as embodied in the laws of science. The author shows how these perceptions about the nature of the universe inform the art of their times: the form and fluidity of primitive art, the crystalline order of Islamic patterns and the subtlety and vitality of Chinese landscapes and calligraphy.