Showing results for "Science" in History

Over two millennia ago, a Greek philosopher had a number of wondrous insights that paved the way to cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. In this elegant work, acclaimed physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander's overlooked legacy to modern science. He examines Anaximander as a scientist interested in shedding light on the deep nature of scientific thinking, which Rovelli locates in his rebellious ability to reimagine the world again and again.

With vast erudition, Foucault cuts across disciplines and reaches back into seventeenth century to show how classical systems of knowledge, which linked all of nature within a great chain of being and analogies between the stars in the heavens and the features in a human face, gave way to the modern sciences of biology, philology, and political economy. The result is nothing less than an archaeology of the sciences that unearths old patterns of meaning and reveals the shocking arbitrariness of our received truths.

Kant's Prolegomena, although a small book, is without doubt the most important of his writings, writes the translator, Paul Carus. Prolegomena means, literally, prefatory or introductory remarks, and it furnishes us with a key to his main work, The Critique of Pure Reason; in fact, it is an...

Life is Simple tells the remarkable story of how a thirteenth century monk's search for simplicity led to the emergence of the modern world. We begin in the turbulent times of the medieval friar, William of Occam, who first articulated the principle that the best answer to any problem is the...

The Practical Philosophy of Plato is an accessible guide to the enduring ideas of one of history's greatest thinkers, designed for modern readers who want to apply ancient wisdom to everyday life.

In 100 AD, Plutarch wrote what would become the first science fiction about the civilisation on the moon, appended to a rigorous scientific analysis of current knowledge about the moon. Orbital mechanics, optics, atmospheric refraction, lunar geography, planetary and stellar composition...

One of our most brilliant social critics - author of the best-selling The Middle Mind - presents a scathing critique of the "delusions" of science alongside a rousing defense of the tradition of Romanticism and the "big" questions. With the rise of religion critics such as Richard Dawkins, and of pseudo-science advocates such as Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer, you' re likely to become a subject of ridicule if you wonder "Why is there something instead of nothing?" or "What is our purpose on Earth?"

In a conversation with Robert John Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Kuhn asks how Russell reconciles his roles as a physicist and an ordained minister. As you listen to a fascinating array of perspectives, you’ll understand Kuhn’s claim that “the nexus of science and theology is the place where we explore human reality.”

In this smart and timely book, the distinguished moral philosopher Sissela Bok ponders the nature of happiness and its place in philosophical thinking and writing throughout the ages. With nuance and elegance, Bok explores notions of happiness - from Greek philosophers to Desmond Tutu, Charles Darwin, Iris Murdoch, and the Dalai Lama - as well as the latest theories advanced by psychologists, economists, geneticists, and neuroscientists.