The Cosmic Revolutionary's Handbook

The Cosmic Revolutionary's Handbook

Author: Luke A. Barnes

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-02-04

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1108486703

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Presents the observations that helped establish our theories of the cosmos, from a unique and engaging perspective.


William Harvey and the Use of Purpose in the Scientific Revolution

William Harvey and the Use of Purpose in the Scientific Revolution

Author: Emerson Thomas McMullen

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13:

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A study of the English scientist Harvey (1576-1657), who is credited with discovering that blood circulates, and of how he and his contemporaries thought about purpose and chance in the universe. Challenges historians and biographers who portray him as acting and thinking like a modern scientist, and shows how his deep religious beliefs, particularly in divine providence, grew out of his political and religious environment and influenced his work. Paper edition (0958-9), $37.00. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Mind and Cosmos

Mind and Cosmos

Author: Thomas Nagel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-11-22

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 0199919755

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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.


Our Cosmic Ancestry in the Stars

Our Cosmic Ancestry in the Stars

Author: Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ph.D.

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1591433290

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An exploration of how acceptance of panspermia will soon change history • Offers extensive scientific proof of panspermia--that life arose on Earth via comets and that evolution is seeded by viruses arriving via comets and interstellar dust • Explores the major philosophical, psychological, cultural, religious, and environmental ramifications of the acceptance of this new scientific worldview Mainstream consensus is that life arose on Earth spontaneously out of “primordial soup.” Yet this theory, as well as the Darwinian “survival of the fittest” concept as it relates to major steps in evolution, has no scientific basis or proof. Where, then, did life come from? As the authors show, with conclusive scientific evidence, life came from space--a concept known as “panspermia.” We humans, and all other life on Earth, evolved over millennia in response to viruses that arrived via comets, and we continue to do so. Exploring the philosophical, psychological, cultural, and environmental ramifications of the acceptance of panspermia, the authors show how the shift will be on par with the Copernican Revolution--when it was finally accepted that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. Explaining the origins of the panspermia theory in the work of the late Sir Fred Hoyle, the authors reveal the vast body of evidence that has accumulated over the past 4 decades in favor of the cosmic origins of life, including viral inserts found in DNA that have shaped our human genome over millions of years. They show how the tiniest of viruses, microscopic animals (tardigrades), and even seeds have been found to be natural cosmonauts. The authors also show how space-borne viruses play a crucial role in the positive evolution of life and that our entire existence on this planet is contingent on the continuing ingress of cosmic viruses. Revealing how panspermia offers answers to some of humanity’s longstanding questions about the origins of life, the authors discuss the impact this shift in understanding will have on our relationship with the Earth and on culture, history, and religion. And perhaps the most dramatic ramification of all is that acceptance of panspermia means acceptance that Earth is not unique--that other life-filled planets exist and intelligent life is common in the Universe. Not only did we come from space, but we are not alone.


The Qualia Revolution

The Qualia Revolution

Author: Peter Wilberg

Publisher:

Published: 2004-04

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1904519040

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The most fundamental scientific fact is not the existence of the physical universe, but our awareness of that universe. Not even the most advanced physics, physiology or psychology, however, can explain even the most elementary qualities of our sensory awareness of that universe - qualities such as redness for example. Qualia used to be defined as sensory qualities such as colour and tone. But what if awareness is not an empty receptacle for sensory impressions, but has its own intrinsic sensual qualities - of the sort we experience as the inwardly sensed shape and substantiality of our bodies, the sensed lightness or darkness colour or tone of our moods, or a sensed feeling of warmth or coolness, closeness or distance to another human being? What if such sensual qualities of awareness are intrinsically meaningful - being the felt essence of meaning or sense? is not energetic quanta but qualia in this sense - sensed and sensual qualities of awareness - that are the basic stuff of which the universe is composed. It argues that qualia are not simply qualities of our own human awareness but fundamental units of awareness. Atoms, molecules and cells are recognised as the physical form taken by field-patterns of atomic, molecular and cellular awareness composed of such units. The soul is understood as an ever-changing gestalt of such units, each of which possess characteristics of both unit and field, particle and wave - allowing the soul-qualities of our own awareness to mix and merge with those of all other beings.


Helgoland

Helgoland

Author: Carlo Rovelli

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0593328906

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Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian “Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” ―Neil Gaiman “One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Anaximander. One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious. As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness. Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.


The Astronomical Revolution

The Astronomical Revolution

Author: Alexandre Koyre

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 1135028346

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Originally published in English in 1973. This volume traces the development of the revolution which so drastically altered man’s view of the universe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The "astronomical revolution" was accomplished in three stages, each linked with the work of one man. With Copernicus, the sun became the centre of the universe. With Kepler, celestial dynamics replaced the kinematics of circles and spheres used by Copernicus. With Borelli the unification of celestial and terrestrial physics was completed by abandonment of the circle in favour the straight line to infinity.


The Copernican Revolution

The Copernican Revolution

Author: Thomas S. Kuhn

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1957

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780674171039

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An account of the Copernican Revolution, focusing on the significance of the plurality of the revolution which encompassed not only mathematical astronomy, but also conceptual changes in cosmology, physics, philosophy, and religion.