Theory and Reality

Theory and Reality

Author: Peter Godfrey-Smith

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-07-16

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 022677113X

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How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.


Science

Science

Author: Patricia Fara

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-02-11

Total Pages: 782

ISBN-13: 0191655570

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Science: A Four Thousand Year History rewrites science's past. Instead of focussing on difficult experiments and abstract theories, Patricia Fara shows how science has always belonged to the practical world of war, politics, and business. Rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people - men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals in their quest for success. Fara sweeps through the centuries, from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, illuminating the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and publishing enterprises that have made science the powerful global phenomenon that it is today. She also ranges internationally, illustrating the importance of scientific projects based around the world, from China to the Islamic empire, as well as the more familiar tale of science in Europe, from Copernicus to Charles Darwin and beyond. Above all, this four thousand year history challenges scientific supremacy, arguing controversially that science is successful not because it is always right - but because people have said that it is right.


Ways of Knowing

Ways of Knowing

Author: John V. Pickstone

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780719059940

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This classic MUP text discusses the historical development of science, technology and medicine in Western Europe and North America from the Renaissance to the present. Combining theoretical discussion and empirical illustration, it redefines the geography of science, technology and medicine.


A Cultural History of Physics

A Cultural History of Physics

Author: Karoly Simonyi

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-01-25

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1439865116

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While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture,


The Natural Sciences and American Scientists in the Revolutionary Era

The Natural Sciences and American Scientists in the Revolutionary Era

Author: Katalin Harkanyi

Publisher: Greenwood

Published: 1990-11-26

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13:

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The years 1760 to 1789 mark the political birth of the United States; simultaneously, an emancipation of American scientific endeavor from the influence of England and Europe was taking place. This is especially evident in the area of natural sciences--the growing frontiers and population of America opened up vast areas to scientific scrutiny. This extensive bibliography commemorates the scholarship that was published in many forms by and about Revolutionary American science from 1760 through the twentieth century. Part one of Katalin Harkanyi's work provides an overview of the natural sciences in the Revolutionary Era. Comprehensive and general sources are listed in the fields of natural history (botany, zoology, agriculture, and geology), natural philosophy (mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, surveying, engineering, and architecture), and medicine (dentistry, pharmacology, and veterinary medicine). Included are journals, documents, biographies, bibliographies, histories, orations, and even travel journals and diaries which create a framework for the study of Revolutionary American science. The second part of this bibliography is devoted to the scientists themselves: the men and women who wrote partial or specific scientific studies. This section of the book shows that these early Americans were capable of remarkable investigations into the natural world, rivaling their European contemporaries. Here are listed the scientists, their extant monographic works, and studies written about them from their age into the twentieth century. Appendices include scientific firsts and special achievements of Revolutionary Americans and a list of scientists arranged by discipline. This book will be a useful guide for historians and scientists, as well as inquiring general readers, who want to know more about the early growth of American science.


History And Science Of Knots

History And Science Of Knots

Author: John C Turner

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1996-05-30

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 9814499641

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This book brings together twenty essays on diverse topics in the history and science of knots. It is divided into five parts, which deal respectively with knots in prehistory and antiquity, non-European traditions, working knots, the developing science of knots, and decorative and other aspects of knots.Its authors include archaeologists who write on knots found in digs of ancient sites (one describes the knots used by the recently discovered Ice Man); practical knotters who have studied the history and uses of knots at sea, for fishing and for various life support activities; a historian of lace; a computer scientist writing on computer classification of doilies; and mathematicians who describe the history of knot theories from the eighteenth century to the present day.In view of the explosion of mathematical theories of knots in the past decade, with consequential new and important scientific applications, this book is timely in setting down a brief, fragmentary history of mankind's oldest and most useful technical and decorative device — the knot.