Beauty And Revolution In Science

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Beauty and Revolution in Science

Author : James W. McAllister
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2018-09-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781501728648

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Beauty and Revolution in Science by James W. McAllister Pdf

Explaining why he embraced the theory of relativity, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist P. A. M. Dirac stated, "It is the essential beauty of the theory which I feel is the real reason for believing in it." How reasonable and rational can science be when its practitioners speak of "revolutions" in their thinking and extol certain theories for their "beauty"? James W. McAllister addresses this question with the first systematic study of the aesthetic evaluations that scientists pass on their theories.Using a wealth of other examples, McAllister explains how scientists' aesthetic preferences are influenced by the empirical track record of theories, describes the origin and development of aesthetic styles of theorizing, and reconsiders whether simplicity is an empirical or an aesthetic virtue of theories. McAllister then advances an innovative model of scientific revolutions, in opposition to that of Thomas S. Kuhn.Three detailed studies demonstrate the interconnection of empirical performance, beauty, and revolution. One examines the impact of new construction materials on the history of architecture. Another reexamines the transition from the Ptolemaic system to Kepler's theory in planetary astronomy, and the third documents the rise of relativity and quantum theory in the twentieth century.

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

Author : Michael Strevens
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2020-10-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781631491382

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The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens Pdf

“The Knowledge Machine is the most stunningly illuminating book of the last several decades regarding the all-important scientific enterprise.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex A paradigm-shifting work, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. • Why is science so powerful? • Why did it take so long—two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics—for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe? In a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument. Like such classic works as Karl Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine grapples with the meaning and origins of science, using a plethora of vivid historical examples to demonstrate that scientists willfully ignore religion, theoretical beauty, and even philosophy to embrace a constricted code of argument whose very narrowness channels unprecedented energy into empirical observation and experimentation. Strevens calls this scientific code the iron rule of explanation, and reveals the way in which the rule, precisely because it is unreasonably close-minded, overcomes individual prejudices to lead humanity inexorably toward the secrets of nature. “With a mixture of philosophical and historical argument, and written in an engrossing style” (Alan Ryan), The Knowledge Machine provides captivating portraits of some of the greatest luminaries in science’s history, including Isaac Newton, the chief architect of modern science and its foundational theories of motion and gravitation; William Whewell, perhaps the greatest philosopher-scientist of the early nineteenth century; and Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark. Today, Strevens argues, in the face of threats from a changing climate and global pandemics, the idiosyncratic but highly effective scientific knowledge machine must be protected from politicians, commercial interests, and even scientists themselves who seek to open it up, to make it less narrow and more rational—and thus to undermine its devotedly empirical search for truth. Rich with illuminating and often delightfully quirky illustrations, The Knowledge Machine, written in a winningly accessible style that belies the import of its revisionist and groundbreaking concepts, radically reframes much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world.

The Aesthetics of Science

Author : Milena Ivanova,Steven French
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2020-01-16
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780429638558

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The Aesthetics of Science by Milena Ivanova,Steven French Pdf

This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performances—such as thought experiments and visual aids—and the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories. Several contributions focus on the concept of beauty as employed by practising scientists, the aesthetic factors at play in science and their role in decision making. Other essays address the question of scientific creativity and how aesthetic judgment resolves the problem of theory choice by employing aesthetic criteria and incorporating insights from both objectivism and subjectivism. The volume also features original perspectives on the role of the sublime in science and sheds light on the empirical work studying the experience of the sublime in science and its relation to the experience of understanding. The Aesthetics of Science tackles these topics from a variety of novel and thought-provoking angles. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in philosophy of science and aesthetics, as well as other subdisciplines such as epistemology and philosophy of mathematics.

The Scientific Revolution

Author : Steven Shapin
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2018-11-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226398488

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The Scientific Revolution by Steven Shapin Pdf

This scholarly and accessible study presents “a provocative new reading” of the late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century advances in scientific inquiry (Kirkus Reviews). In The Scientific Revolution, historian Steven Shapin challenges the very idea that any such a “revolution” ever took place. Rejecting the narrative that a new and unifying paradigm suddenly took hold, he demonstrates how the conduct of science emerged from a wide array of early modern philosophical agendas, political commitments, and religious beliefs. In this analysis, early modern science is shown not as a set of disembodied ideas, but as historically situated ways of knowing and doing. Shapin shows that every principle identified as the modernizing essence of science—whether it’s experimentalism, mathematical methodology, or a mechanical conception of nature—was in fact contested by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century practitioners with equal claims to modernity. Shapin argues that this contested legacy is nevertheless rightly understood as the origin of modern science, its problems as well as its acknowledged achievements. This updated edition includes a new bibliographic essay featuring the latest scholarship. “An excellent book.” —Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

Galileo and the Scientific Revolution

Author : Laura Fermi,Gilberto Bernardini
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2013-02-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780486170022

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Galileo and the Scientific Revolution by Laura Fermi,Gilberto Bernardini Pdf

An absorbing account of the origins of modern science as well as a biography, this book places particular emphasis on Galileo's experiments with telescopes and his observations of the sky.

Revolution in Science

Author : I. Bernard Cohen
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 742 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : History
ISBN : 0674767780

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Revolution in Science by I. Bernard Cohen Pdf

Cohen's exploration seeks to uncover nothing less than the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea.

Rethinking the Scientific Revolution

Author : Margaret J. Osler
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2000-03-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 0521667909

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Rethinking the Scientific Revolution by Margaret J. Osler Pdf

This collection reconsiders canonical figures and the formation of disciplinary boundaries during the Scientific Revolution.

Truth and Beauty

Author : Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1990-10-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226100876

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Truth and Beauty by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Pdf

"What a splendid book! Reading it is a joy, and for me, at least, continuing reading it became compulsive. . . . Chandrasekhar is a distinguished astrophysicist and every one of the lectures bears the hallmark of all his work: precision, thoroughness, lucidity."—Sir Hermann Bondi, Nature The late S. Chandrasekhar was best known for his discovery of the upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf star, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He was the author of many books, including The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes and, most recently, Newton's Principia for the Common Reader.

Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution

Author : David C. Lindberg,Robert S. Westman
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 588 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1990-07-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 0521348048

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Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution by David C. Lindberg,Robert S. Westman Pdf

A compendium offering broad reflections on the Scientific Revolution from a spectrum of scholars engaged in the study of 16th and 17th century science. Many accepted views and interpretations of the scientific revolution are challenged.

Clean

Author : James Hamblin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020-07-21
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780525538332

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Clean by James Hamblin Pdf

Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR and Vanity Fair One of Smithsonian's Ten Best Science Books of 2020 “A searching and vital explication of germ theory, social norms, and what the modern era is really doing to our bodies and our psyches.” —Vanity Fair A preventative medicine physician and staff writer for The Atlantic explains the surprising and unintended effects of our hygiene practices in this informative and entertaining introduction to the new science of skin microbes and probiotics. Keeping skin healthy is a booming industry, and yet it seems like almost no one agrees on what actually works. Confusing messages from health authorities and ineffective treatments have left many people desperate for reliable solutions. An enormous alternative industry is filling the void, selling products that are often of questionable safety and totally unknown effectiveness. In Clean, doctor and journalist James Hamblin explores how we got here, examining the science and culture of how we care for our skin today. He talks to dermatologists, microbiologists, allergists, immunologists, aestheticians, bar-soap enthusiasts, venture capitalists, Amish people, theologians, and straight-up scam artists, trying to figure out what it really means to be clean. He even experiments with giving up showers entirely, and discovers that he is not alone. Along the way, he realizes that most of our standards of cleanliness are less related to health than most people think. A major part of the picture has been missing: a little-known ecosystem known as the skin microbiome—the trillions of microbes that live on our skin and in our pores. These microbes are not dangerous; they’re more like an outer layer of skin that no one knew we had, and they influence everything from acne, eczema, and dry skin, to how we smell. The new goal of skin care will be to cultivate a healthy biome—and to embrace the meaning of “clean” in the natural sense. This can mean doing much less, saving time, money, energy, water, and plastic bottles in the process. Lucid, accessible, and deeply researched, Clean explores the ongoing, radical change in the way we think about our skin, introducing readers to the emerging science that will be at the forefront of health and wellness conversations in coming years.

Strange Beauty

Author : George Johnson
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 447 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2010-09-29
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780307765451

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Strange Beauty by George Johnson Pdf

With a New Afterword "Our knowledge of fundamental physics contains not one fruitful idea that does not carry the name of Murray Gell-Mann."--Richard Feynman Acclaimed science writer George Johnson brings his formidable reporting skills to the first biography of Nobel Prize-winner Murray Gell-Mann, the brilliant, irascible man who revolutionized modern particle physics with his models of the quark and the Eightfold Way. Born into a Jewish immigrant family on New York's East 14th Street, Gell-Mann's prodigious talent was evident from an early age--he entered Yale at 15, completed his Ph.D. at 21, and was soon identifying the structures of the world's smallest components and illuminating the elegant symmetries of the universe. Beautifully balanced in its portrayal of an extraordinary and difficult man, interpreting the concepts of advanced physics with scrupulous clarity and simplicity, Strange Beauty is a tour-de-force of both science writing and biography.

Is Science Neurotic?

Author : Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781860945007

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Is Science Neurotic? by Nicholas Maxwell Pdf

- Has dramatic implications for social science and the humanities, for philosophy and for education - Written in an informal, accessible form (with the exception of the appendix, which is more technical)

Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution

Author : Toby E. Huff
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2010-10-11
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781139495356

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Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution by Toby E. Huff Pdf

Seventeenth-century Europe witnessed an extraordinary flowering of discoveries and innovations. This study, beginning with the Dutch-invented telescope of 1608, casts Galileo's discoveries into a global framework. Although the telescope was soon transmitted to China, Mughal India, and the Ottoman Empire, those civilizations did not respond as Europeans did to the new instrument. In Europe, there was an extraordinary burst of innovations in microscopy, human anatomy, optics, pneumatics, electrical studies, and the science of mechanics. Nearly all of those aided the emergence of Newton's revolutionary grand synthesis, which unified terrestrial and celestial physics under the law of universal gravitation. That achievement had immense implications for all aspects of modern science, technology, and economic development. The economic implications are set out in the concluding epilogue. All these unique developments suggest why the West experienced a singular scientific and economic ascendancy of at least four centuries.

Beauty and the Beast

Author : Ernst Peter Fischer
Publisher : Springer
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-11-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781489961440

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Beauty and the Beast by Ernst Peter Fischer Pdf

Showing how the aesthetic delights of thought, analysis, research, and discovery are leading components of the scientific mind and process, he examines everything from snowflakes to the overall makeup of the space-time continuum. He explores these concepts and others including the golden mean, evolution, symmetry in nature, as well as imaginary numbers and irrationality as proof of beauty in science. He presents truth as a state of beauty - and beauty as the embodiment of truth. This book will appeal to lay people and scientists alike.

Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution

Author : Albert Edward Musson,Eric Robinson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 550 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Great Britain
ISBN : 2881243827

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Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution by Albert Edward Musson,Eric Robinson Pdf

Concentrating on the Industrial Revolution as experienced in Great Britain (and, within that sphere, mainly on the early development of the engineering and chemical industries), the authors develop the thesis that the interaction between theorists and men of practical affairs was much closer, more complex and more consequential than some historians of science have held it to be. Deeply researched, gracefully argued and fully documented. First published in 1969, and established now as a "classic" in the field, the present edition has a new foreword by Margaret C. Jacob. (NW) Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR