The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens

The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens PDF Author: Gerald James Holton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674005303
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
In questioning the scientific enterprise and its effect on the society around it, this analysis of modern science has a particular emphasis on the role of thematic elements - often unconscious presuppositions that guide scientific work.

The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens

The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens PDF Author: Gerald James Holton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674005303
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description
In questioning the scientific enterprise and its effect on the society around it, this analysis of modern science has a particular emphasis on the role of thematic elements - often unconscious presuppositions that guide scientific work.

The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens

The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens PDF Author: Gerald James Holton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674005303
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description


Science and Anti-science

Science and Anti-science PDF Author: Gerald James Holton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674792982
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
What is good science? What goal--if any--is the proper end of scientific activity? Is there a legitimating authority that scientists mayclaim? Howserious athreat are the anti-science movements? These questions have long been debated but, as Gerald Holton points out, every era must offer its own responses. This book examines these questions not in the abstract but shows their historic roots and the answers emerging from the scientific and political controversies of this century. Employing the case-study method and the concept of scientific thematathat he has pioneered, Holton displays the broad scope of his insight into the workings of science: from the influence of Ernst Mach on twentiethcentury physicists, biologists, psychologists, and other thinkers to the rhetorical strategies used in the work of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and others; from the bickering between Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Congress over the proper form of federal sponsorship of scientific research to philosophical debates since Oswald Spengier over whether our scientific knowledge will ever be "complete." In a masterful final chapter, Holton scrutinizes the "anti-science phenomenon," the increasingly common opposition to science as practiced today. He approaches this contentious issue by examining the world views and political ambitions of the proponents of science as well as those of its opponents-the critics of "establishment science" (including even those who fear that science threatens to overwhelm the individual in the postmodern world) and the adherents of "alternative science" (Creationists, New Age "healers," astrologers). Through it all runs the thread of the author's deep historical knowledge and his humanistic understanding of science in modern culture. Science and Anti-Science will be of great interest not only to scientists and scholars in the field of science studies but also to educators, policymalcers, and all those who wish to gain a fuller understanding of challenges to and doubts about the role of science in our lives today.

Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought

Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought PDF Author: Gerald Holton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674877481
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
The highly acclaimed first edition of this major work convincingly established Gerald Holton’s analysis of the ways scientific ideas evolve. His concept of “themata,” induced from case studies with special attention to the work of Einstein, has become one of the chief tools for understanding scientific progress. It is now one of the main approaches in the study of the initiation and acceptance of individual scientific insights. Three principal consequences of this perspective extend beyond the study of the history of science itself. It provides philosophers of science with the kind of raw material on which some of the best work in their field is based. It helps intellectual historians to redefine the place of modern science in contemporary culture by identifying influences on the scientific imagination. And it prompts educators to reexamine the conventional concepts of education in science. In this new edition, Holton has masterfully reshaped the contents and widened the coverage. Significant new material has been added, including a penetrating account of the advent of quantum physics in the United States, and a broad consideration of the integrity of science, as exemplified in the work of Niels Bohr. In addition, a revised introduction and a new postscript provide an updated perspective on the role of themata. The result of this thoroughgoing revision is an indispensable volume for scholars and students of scientific thought and intellectual history.

Victory and Vexation in Science

Victory and Vexation in Science PDF Author: Gerald Holton
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674015197
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book shows why at any given time there exists no single scientific “paradigm,“ but rather a spectrum of competing perspectives. Considering conflicts between Heisenberg and Einstein, Bohr and Einstein, and P. W. Bridgman and B. F. Skinner, Holton demonstrates a masterly understanding of modern science and how it influences our world.

The Scientific Imagination

The Scientific Imagination PDF Author: Arnon Levy
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190212306
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
This book looks at the role of the imagination in science, from both philosophical and psychological perspectives. These contributions combine to provide a comprehensive and exciting picture of this under-explored subject.

The Science of Reading

The Science of Reading PDF Author: Margaret J. Snowling
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470757639
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
The Science of Reading: A Handbook brings together state-of-the-art reviews of reading research from leading names in the field, to create a highly authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of contemporary knowledge about reading and related skills. Provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, including theoretical approaches, reading processes, stage models of reading, cross-linguistic studies of reading, reading difficulties, the biology of reading, and reading instruction Divided into seven sections:Word Recognition Processes in Reading; Learning to Read and Spell; Reading Comprehension; Reading in Different Languages; Disorders of Reading and Spelling; Biological Bases of Reading; Teaching Reading Edited by well-respected senior figures in the field

Scientific Values and Civic Virtues

Scientific Values and Civic Virtues PDF Author: Noretta Koertge
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195172256
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The contributors - who include philosophers, political scientists, feminist theorists, physicists & engineers - argue that science can broadly inspire the civic virtues of an educated & tolerant global enterprise dedicated to the common good.

Between History and Method

Between History and Method PDF Author: S. Amsterdamski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401127069
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
In this book I have tried to develop further the ideas expressed in my previous work, Between Experience and Metaphysics, which was published in the same series in 1975. Several years have passed since the original Polish edition (and then 1 the Italian translation) of this book appeared. The fact that the principal ideas expressed in it have withstood, as I see it, the brunt of criticism, has led me to remain basically with the original text. Two main changes have, however, been introduced. First, I have added an Appendix containing the original version of a paper I presented at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in June 1988 and a short postscript to that paper referring to comments made during two dis cussions at the Kolleg. Let me briefly explain the reason for this addition. In recent years the landscape for historical and philosophical in terpretation of the evolution of scientific knowledge has altered. The strongest of the new contenders for epistemological recognition are social constructivists, who analyze in detail how knowledge is produced within specific social settings, including the instruments and procedures of par ticular laboratories and the economic and political realities of particular scientific communities. The local character of these studies raises the question of whether they can ever provide generalizable epistemological claims.

The Nuclear Muse

The Nuclear Muse PDF Author: John Canaday
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299168544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Canaday, a poet and playwright who has been a Watson Fellow and a Starbuck Fellow in Poetry at Boston University, analyzes a variety of texts produced by physicists before, during, and after WWII, including Niels Bohr's "The Quantum Postulate"; the technical lectures used for training at Los Alamos; scientist's descriptions of their work and of the Trinity test; and Leo Szilard's postwar novella, The Voice of the Dolphins. He looks at physicists' use of figurative language in the development of quantum theory, and examines the role played by the rhetorics of exploration and religion in the construction of the Los Alamos community. Includes bandw historical photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR