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Author: Christopher Herbert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226327361
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
One of the articles of faith of twentieth-century intellectual history is that the theory of relativity in physics sprang in its essentials from the unaided genius of Albert Einstein; another is that scientific relativity is unconnected to ethical, cultural, or epistemological relativisms. Victorian Relativity challenges these assumptions, unearthing a forgotten tradition of avant-garde speculation that took as its guiding principle "the negation of the absolute" and set itself under the militant banner of "relativity." Christopher Herbert shows that the idea of relativity produced revolutionary changes in one field after another in the nineteenth century. Surveying a long line of thinkers including Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, W. K. Clifford, W. S. Jevons, Karl Pearson, James Frazer, and Einstein himself, Victorian Relativity argues that the early relativity movement was bound closely to motives of political and cultural reform and, in particular, to radical critiques of the ideology of authoritarianism. Recuperating relativity from those who treat it as synonymous with nihilism, Herbert portrays it as the basis of some of our crucial intellectual and ethical traditions.
Author: Christopher Herbert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226327361
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
One of the articles of faith of twentieth-century intellectual history is that the theory of relativity in physics sprang in its essentials from the unaided genius of Albert Einstein; another is that scientific relativity is unconnected to ethical, cultural, or epistemological relativisms. Victorian Relativity challenges these assumptions, unearthing a forgotten tradition of avant-garde speculation that took as its guiding principle "the negation of the absolute" and set itself under the militant banner of "relativity." Christopher Herbert shows that the idea of relativity produced revolutionary changes in one field after another in the nineteenth century. Surveying a long line of thinkers including Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, W. K. Clifford, W. S. Jevons, Karl Pearson, James Frazer, and Einstein himself, Victorian Relativity argues that the early relativity movement was bound closely to motives of political and cultural reform and, in particular, to radical critiques of the ideology of authoritarianism. Recuperating relativity from those who treat it as synonymous with nihilism, Herbert portrays it as the basis of some of our crucial intellectual and ethical traditions.
Author: Rachel Crossland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192547976
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Modernist Physics takes as its focus the ideas associated with three scientific papers published by Albert Einstein in 1905, considering the dissemination of those ideas both within and beyond the scientific field, and exploring the manifestation of similar ideas in the literary works of Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence. Drawing on Gillian Beer's suggestion that literature and science 'share the moment's discourse', Modernist Physics seeks both to combine and to distinguish between the two standard approaches within the field of literature and science: direct influence and the zeitgeist. The book is divided into three parts, each of which focuses on the ideas associated with one of Einstein's papers. Part I considers Woolf in relation to Einstein's paper on light quanta, arguing that questions of duality and complementarity had a wider cultural significance in the early twentieth century than has yet been acknowledged, and suggesting that Woolf can usefully be considered a complementary, rather than a dualistic, writer. Part II looks at Lawrence's reading of at least one book on relativity in 1921, and his subsequent suggestion in Fantasia of the Unconscious that 'we are in sad need of a theory of human relativity', a theory which is shown to be relevant to Lawrence's writing of relationships both before and after 1921. Part III considers Woolf and Lawrence together alongside late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century discussions of molecular physics and crowd psychology, suggesting that Einstein's work on Brownian motion provides a useful model for thinking about individual literary characters.
Author: David Topper
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146144781X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254
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Book Description
This book tracks the history of the theory of relativity through Einstein’s life, with in-depth studies of its background as built upon by ideas from earlier scientists. The focus points of Einstein’s theory of relativity include its development throughout his life; the origins of his ideas and his indebtedness to the earlier works of Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Mach and others; the application of the theory to the birth of modern cosmology; and his quest for a unified field theory. Treading a fine line between the popular and technical (but not shying away from the occasional equation), this book explains the entire range of relativity and weaves an up-to-date biography of Einstein throughout. The result is an explanation of the world of relativity, based on an extensive journey into earlier physics and a simultaneous voyage into the mind of Einstein, written for the curious and intelligent reader.
Author: Peter Garratt
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
ISBN: 0838642667
Category : Empiricism
Languages : en
Pages : 245
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Book Description
Empiricism, one of Raymond William's keywords, circulates in much contemporary thought and criticism solely as a term of censure, a synonym for spurious objectivity or positivism. Yet rarely, if ever, has it had this philosophical implication. Dr Johnson, it should be recalled, kicked the stone precisely to expose empiricism's baroque falsifications of common sense. In an effort to restore historical depth to the term, this book examines epistemology in the narrative prose of five writers, John Ruskin, Alexander Bain, G. H. Lewes, Herbert Spencer, and George Eliot, developing the view that the flourishing of nineteenth-century scientific culture occurred at a time when empiricism itself was critically dismantling any such naive representationalism. --
Author: Bennett Zon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108326269
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
This engaging book explores the dynamic relationship between evolutionary science and musical culture in Victorian Britain, drawing upon a wealth of popular scientific and musical literature to contextualize evolutionary theories of the Darwinian and non-Darwinian revolutions. Bennett Zon uses musical culture to question the hegemonic role ascribed to Darwin by later thinkers, and interrogates the conceptual premise of modern debates in evolutionary musicology. Structured around the Great Chain of Being, chapters are organized by discipline in successively ascending order according to their object of study, from zoology and the study of animal music to theology and the music of God. Evolution and Victorian Musical Culture takes a non-Darwinian approach to the interpretation of Victorian scientific and musical interrelationships, debunking the idea that the arts had little influence on contemporary scientific ideas and, by probing the origins of musical interdisciplinarity, the volume shows how music helped ideas about evolution to evolve.
Author: Suzy Anger
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 080146479X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
Suzy Anger investigates the relationship of Victorian interpretation to the ways in which literary criticism is practiced today. Her primary focus is literary interpretation, but she also considers fields such as legal theory, psychology, history, and the natural sciences in order to establish the pervasiveness of hermeneutic thought in Victorian culture. Anger's book demonstrates that much current thought on interpretation has its antecedents in the Victorians, who were already deeply engaged with the problems of interpretation that concern literary theorists today. Anger traces the development and transformation of interpretive theory from a religious to a secular (and particularly literary) context. She argues that even as hermeneutic theory was secularized in literary interpretation it carried in its practice some of the religious implications with which the tradition began. She further maintains that, for the Victorians, theories of interpretation are often connected to ethical principles and suggests that all theories of interpretation may ultimately be grounded in ethical theories. Beginning with an examination of Victorian biblical exegesis, in the work of figures such as Benjamin Jowett, John Henry Newman, and Matthew Arnold, the book moves to studies of Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, and Oscar Wilde. Emphasizing the extent to which these important writers are preoccupied with hermeneutics, Anger also shows that consideration of their thought brings to light questions and qualifications of some of the assumptions of contemporary criticism.
Author: Dov M. Gabbay
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080557015
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 751
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Book Description
The present volume of the Handbook of the History of Logic is designed to establish 19th century Britain as a substantial force in logic, developing new ideas, some of which would be overtaken by, and other that would anticipate, the century's later capitulation to the mathematization of logic. British Logic in the Nineteenth Century is indispensable reading and a definitive research resource for anyone with an interest in the history of logic. - Detailed and comprehensive chapters covering the entire range of modal logic - Contains the latest scholarly discoveries and interpretative insights that answer many questions in the field of logic
Author: Daniel Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009436112
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
Daniel Williams shows how, in a profoundly numerical age, Victorian novels imagined thought and action in the face of uncertainty.
Author: J. Nixon
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403980896
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
This collection of essays attempts to address the disparate historical and critical ways religion informs the literature and culture of nineteenth century England, showing how a representative group of major Victorians negotiated its impact. The collection attempts to present Victorian religious discourse not as monologic but as dialogic, if not protean. It seeks to make available new understandings of nineteenth-century British literature as well as to elucidate the extent to which religious discourse is vested in Victorian cultural thoughts and practice.
Author: Elizabeth L. Throesch
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783086246
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
‘Before Einstein’ brings together previous scholarship in the field of nineteenth-century literature and science and greatly expands upon it, offering the first book-length study of not only the scientific and cultural context of the spatial fourth dimension, but also the literary value of four-dimensional theory. In addition to providing close critical analysis of Charles Howard Hinton’s Scientific Romances (1884–1896), ‘Before Einstein’ examines the work of H. G. Wells, Henry James and William James through the lens of four-dimensional theory. The primary value of Hinton’s work has always been its literary and philosophical content and influence, rather than its scientific authority. It is certain that significant late nineteenth-century writers and thinkers such as H. G. Wells, William James, Olive Schreiner, Karl Pearson and W. E. B. Du Bois read Hinton. Others, including Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, were familiar with his ideas. Hinton’s fourth dimension appealed to scientists, spiritualists and artists, and – particularly at the end of the nineteenth century – the interests of these different groups often overlapped. Truly interdisciplinary in scope, ‘Before Einstein’ breaks new ground by offering an extensive analysis of four-dimensional theory's place in the shared history of Modernism.
