The Big Bang Theory And Philosophy

Author : Dean A. Kowalski
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2012-05-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781118074558

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The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy by Dean A. Kowalski Pdf

A lighthearted meditation on the philosophical quandaries of the hit television show The Big Bang Theory Ever wonder what Aristotle might say about the life Sheldon Cooper leads? Why Thomas Hobbes would applaud the roommate agreement? Who Immanuel Kant would treat with "haughty derision" for weaving "un-unravelable webs?" And—most importantly—whether Wil Wheaton is truly evil? Of course you have. Bazinga! This book mines the deep thinking of some of history's most potent philosophical minds to explore your most pressing questions about The Big Bang Theory and its nerdy genius characters. You might find other philosophy books on science and cosmology, but only this one refers to Darth Vader Force-chokes, cloning Leonard Nimoy, and oompa-loompa-like engineers. Fo-shizzle. Gives you irresistibly geek-worthy insights on your favorite Big Bang Theory characters, story lines, and ideas Examines important themes involving ethics and virtue, science, semiotics, religion, and the human condition Brings the thinking of some of the world's greatest philosophers to bear on The Big Bang Theory, from Aristotle and Plato to Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Simone de Beauvoir, and more Essential reading for every Big Bang Theory fan, this book explores whether comic-book-wielding geeks can lead the good life, and whether they can know enough science to "tear the mask off nature and stare at the face of God."

Author : Dean A. Kowalski
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2012-04-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781118236413

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The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy by Dean A. Kowalski Pdf

A lighthearted meditation on the philosophical quandaries of the hit television show The Big Bang Theory Ever wonder what Aristotle might say about the life Sheldon Cooper leads? Why Thomas Hobbes would applaud the roommate agreement? Who Immanuel Kant would treat with "haughty derision" for weaving "un-unravelable webs?" And—most importantly—whether Wil Wheaton is truly evil? Of course you have. Bazinga! This book mines the deep thinking of some of history's most potent philosophical minds to explore your most pressing questions about The Big Bang Theory and its nerdy genius characters. You might find other philosophy books on science and cosmology, but only this one refers to Darth Vader Force-chokes, cloning Leonard Nimoy, and oompa-loompa-like engineers. Fo-shizzle. Gives you irresistibly geek-worthy insights on your favorite Big Bang Theory characters, story lines, and ideas Examines important themes involving ethics and virtue, science, semiotics, religion, and the human condition Brings the thinking of some of the world's greatest philosophers to bear on The Big Bang Theory, from Aristotle and Plato to Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Simone de Beauvoir, and more Essential reading for every Big Bang Theory fan, this book explores whether comic-book-wielding geeks can lead the good life, and whether they can know enough science to "tear the mask off nature and stare at the face of God."

Author : Eric Lerner
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1992-10-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780679740490

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The Big Bang Never Happened by Eric Lerner Pdf

A mesmerizing challenge to orthodox cosmology with powerful implications not only for cosmology itself but also for our notions of time, God, and human nature -- with a new Preface addressing the latest developments in the field. Far-ranging and provocative, The Big Bang Never Happened is more than a critique of one of the primary theories of astronomy -- that the universe appeared out of nothingness in a single cataclysmic explosion ten to twenty billion years ago. Drawing on new discoveries in particle physics and thermodynamics as well as on readings in history and philosophy, Eric J. Lerner confronts the values behind the Big Bang theory: the belief that mathematical formulae are superior to empirical observation; that the universe is finite and decaying; and that it could only come into being through some outside force. With inspiring boldness and scientific rigor, he offers a brilliantly orchestrated argument that generates explosive intellectual debate.

Author : Alan Woods ,Ted Grant
Publisher : Wellred Books
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2015-12-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781900007566

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Reason in Revolt by Alan Woods ,Ted Grant Pdf

The achievements of science and technology during the past century are unparalleled in history. They provide the potential for the solution to all the problems faced by the planet, and equally for its total destruction. Allegedly scientific theories are being used to "prove" that criminality is caused, not by social conditions, but by a "criminal gene". Black people are alleged to be disadvantaged, not because of discrimination, but because of their genetic make-up. Of course, such "science" is highly convenient to right-wing politicians intent on ruthlessly cutting welfare. In the field of theoretical physics and cosmology there is a growing tendency towards mysticism. The "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe is being used to justify the existence of a Creator, as in the book of Genesis . For the first time in centuries, science appears to lend credence to religious obscurantism. Yet this is only one side of the story.

Author : Eric Kaplan
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2014-10-16
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780698161399

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Does Santa Exist? by Eric Kaplan Pdf

A humorous philosophical investigation into the existence of Santa from a co–executive producer of The Big Bang Theory—the perfect stocking stuffer for the deep thinker on everyone’s list. Emmy award–winning comedy writer and philosophy scholar Eric Kaplan brilliantly turns a search for the truth about Santa into a laugh-out-loud metaphysical romp. Surveying everything from the analytic philosophy of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein to Buddhism, Taoism, and Kabbalah, Kaplan alights on comedy—including The Big Bang Theory and Monty Python—as the best way to resolve life’s most profound paradoxes, including the existence of perfect moments, Santa, and even God.

Author : Bernard Haisch
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011-05-14
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9781458743510

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The God Theory by Bernard Haisch Pdf

As science integrates the in-depth knowledge of the physical world accumulated over the past three centuries, it will be channeled into a new and exciting line of inquiry that acknowledges the expanded reality of consciousness as a creative force in the universe and the spiritual creative power embodied in our own minds. This book summarizes the thoughts of an inquisitive, but open-minded, scientist. What I present here is a theory that looks promising, not scientific proof. It should not be surprising, however, if some of what I propose coincides with theories propounded by others who claim a more intimate relationship with the Almighty. After all, if I am on the right track, and if they are, it would be worrisome if we were not, ultimately, in agreement. All I ask is that you seriously consider the logic of my theory, especially if it challenges you to question what you were taught - in Sunday school, in catechism or, dare I say, in physics class. I offer this book, not as a theological treatise, but as a short, readable exposition of a worldview that can bring sense and purpose into individual lives, and tolerance and peace to a planet whose future is in serious jeopardy - in large part because of the irrational dogmatism of both religion and science. If I am correct, we are literally all one being (God) in many individual forms. Why, then, would we continue to harm one another?

Author : Tony Rothman
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2022-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780674251847

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A Little Book about the Big Bang by Tony Rothman Pdf

Tony Rothman offers a primer on the science of the big bang and the questions we still can’t answer about the origins of the universe. Enlisting thoughtful analogies and a step-by-step approach, Rothman guides readers through dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, and other topics at—and beyond—the cutting edge of cosmology.

Author : Luc Brisson,F. Walter Meyerstein
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 1995-07-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791497562

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Inventing the Universe by Luc Brisson,F. Walter Meyerstein Pdf

A parallel investigation of both Plato's Timaeusand the contemporary standard Big Bang model of the universe shows that any possible scientific knowledge of the universe is ultimately grounded in irreducible and undemonstrable propositions. These are inventions of the human mind. The scientific knowledge of the universe is entirely composed in a series of axioms and rules of inference underlying a formalized system. There is no logical relationship between the sensible perception of a world of becoming and the formalized system of axioms known as a "scientific explanation." The "irrational gap" between perception and explanation can be appraised historically and identified in three stages: Plato's Timaeus furnishes the first example of a scientific theory dealing with a realm of ideality that cannot be derived from immediate sensible perception; the Big Bang model is constituted on the basis of the purely geometrical notion of symmetry; and in the more recent Algorithmic Theory of Information, the analysis of the purely symbolic language expressing physical reality reveals the level of complexity of any given theory formulated in this language. The result is that the probability of the universe actually conforming with simple mathematics is zero. In a formal system, a theorem contains more information than can be found in the set of axioms of this system, and it remains undecidable. In Aristotle' s language, the theorems that can be proved within a theoretical model are already potentially contained in the system of axioms underlying these theorems.

Author : Helge Kragh
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 515 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691227719

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Cosmology and Controversy by Helge Kragh Pdf

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age. In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

Author : Thomas Nagel
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 141 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2012-11-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199919758

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Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel Pdf

The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.

Author : Paul J. Steinhardt,Neil Turok
Publisher : Crown
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2007-05-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780385523110

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Endless Universe by Paul J. Steinhardt,Neil Turok Pdf

Two world-renowned scientists present an audacious new vision of the cosmos that “steals the thunder from the Big Bang theory.” —Wall Street Journal The Big Bang theory—widely regarded as the leading explanation for the origin of the universe—posits that space and time sprang into being about 14 billion years ago in a hot, expanding fireball of nearly infinite density. Over the last three decades the theory has been repeatedly revised to address such issues as how galaxies and stars first formed and why the expansion of the universe is speeding up today. Furthermore, an explanation has yet to be found for what caused the Big Bang in the first place. In Endless Universe, Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, both distinguished theoretical physicists, present a bold new cosmology. Steinhardt and Turok “contend that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our universe and a parallel world” (Discover). They recount the remarkable developments in astronomy, particle physics, and superstring theory that form the basis for their groundbreaking “Cyclic Universe” theory. According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets. Endless Universe provides answers to longstanding problems with the Big Bang model, while offering a provocative new view of both the past and the future of the cosmos. It is a “theory that could solve the cosmic mystery” (USA Today).

Author : Peter Coles
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2001-08-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191579448

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Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Coles Pdf

This book is a simple, non-technical introduction to cosmology, explaining what it is and what cosmologists do. Peter Coles discusses the history of the subject, the development of the Big Bang theory, and more speculative modern issues like quantum cosmology, superstrings, and dark matter. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Roger Penrose
Publisher : Random House
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781446402214

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Cycles of Time by Roger Penrose Pdf

**WINNER OF THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS** What came before the Big Bang? How did the universe begin and must it inevitably end? In this remarkable book Roger Penrose brilliantly illuminates some of the deepest mysteries of the universe. Cycles of Time contains a penetrating analysis of the second law of thermodynamics - according to which the 'randomness' of our world is continually increasing - and a thorough examination of the light-cone geometry of space-time. It combines these two central themes to show how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the 'big bang' of a new one. Presenting various standard and non-standard cosmological models, discussing black holes in depth as well as taking in the role of the cosmic microwave background along the way, Roger Penrose argues that the Big Bang was not actually the beginning of everything - nor will it signal the end. 'Science needs more people like Penrose, willing and able to point out the flaws in fashionable models from a position of authority, and to signpost alternative roads to follow' Independent

Author : Dean A. Kowalski
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2008-11-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780813138701

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Steven Spielberg and Philosophy by Dean A. Kowalski Pdf

“This lively collection of essays on the ideas underpinning his films enriches and enlarges our understanding of Spielberg’s complex body of work.” —Joseph McBride, author of Steven Spielberg: A Biography Few directors have had as powerful an influence on the film industry and the movie-going public as Steven Spielberg. Whatever the subject—dinosaurs, war, extra-terrestrials, slavery, the Holocaust, or terrorism—one clear and consistent touchstone is present in all of Spielberg’s films: an interest in the human condition. In movies ranging from Jaws to Schindler’s List to Amistad to Jurassic Park, he has brought to life some of the most popular heroes—and most despised villains—of all time. In Steven Spielberg and Philosophy, Dean A. Kowalski and some of the nation’s most respected philosophers investigate Spielberg’s art to illuminate the nature of humanity. The book explores rich themes such as cinematic realism, fictional belief, terrorism, family ethics, consciousness, virtue and moral character, human rights, and religion in Spielberg’s work. Avid moviegoers and deep thinkers will discover plenty to enjoy in this collection.

Author : Paul A. LaViolette
Publisher : Inner Traditions
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0892814578

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Beyond the Big Bang by Paul A. LaViolette Pdf