Wondrous Truths
The Improbable Triumph of Modern Science
Seiten
2016
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-938507-2 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-938507-2 (ISBN)
Wondrous Truths answers two questions about the steep rise of theoretical discoveries around 1600: Why in the European West? And why so quickly? The history of science's awkward assortment of accident and luck, geography and personal idiosyncrasy, explains scientific progress alongside experimental method.
A fresh, daring, and genuine alternative to the traditional story of scientific progress.
Explaining the world around us, and the life within it, is one of the most uniquely human drives, and the most celebrated activity of science. Good explanations are what provide accurate causal accounts of the things we wonder at, but explanation's earthly origins haven't grounded it: we have used it to account for the grandest and most wondrous mysteries in the natural world.
Explanations give us a sense of understanding, but an explanation that feels right doesn't mean it is true. For every true explanation, there is a false one that feels just as good. A good theory's explanations, though, have a much easier path to truth. This push for good explanations elevated science from medieval alchemy to electro-chemistry, or a pre-inertial physics to the forces underlying nanoparticles. And though the attempt to explain has existed as long as we have been able to wonder, a science timeline from pre-history to the present will reveal a steep curve of theoretical discovery that explodes around 1600, primarily in the West.
Ranging over neuroscience, psychology, history, and policy, Wondrous Truths answers two fundamental questions -- Why did science progress in the West? And why so quickly? J.D. Trout's answers are surprising. His central idea is that Western science rose above all others because it hit upon successive theories that were approximately true through an awkward assortment of accident and luck, geography and personal idiosyncrasy. Of course, intellectual ingenuity partially accounts for this persistent drive forward. But so too does the persistence of the objects of wonder. Wondrous Truths recovers the majesty of science, and provides a startling new look at the grand sweep of its biggest ideas.
A fresh, daring, and genuine alternative to the traditional story of scientific progress.
Explaining the world around us, and the life within it, is one of the most uniquely human drives, and the most celebrated activity of science. Good explanations are what provide accurate causal accounts of the things we wonder at, but explanation's earthly origins haven't grounded it: we have used it to account for the grandest and most wondrous mysteries in the natural world.
Explanations give us a sense of understanding, but an explanation that feels right doesn't mean it is true. For every true explanation, there is a false one that feels just as good. A good theory's explanations, though, have a much easier path to truth. This push for good explanations elevated science from medieval alchemy to electro-chemistry, or a pre-inertial physics to the forces underlying nanoparticles. And though the attempt to explain has existed as long as we have been able to wonder, a science timeline from pre-history to the present will reveal a steep curve of theoretical discovery that explodes around 1600, primarily in the West.
Ranging over neuroscience, psychology, history, and policy, Wondrous Truths answers two fundamental questions -- Why did science progress in the West? And why so quickly? J.D. Trout's answers are surprising. His central idea is that Western science rose above all others because it hit upon successive theories that were approximately true through an awkward assortment of accident and luck, geography and personal idiosyncrasy. Of course, intellectual ingenuity partially accounts for this persistent drive forward. But so too does the persistence of the objects of wonder. Wondrous Truths recovers the majesty of science, and provides a startling new look at the grand sweep of its biggest ideas.
J.D. Trout is Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. His previous books include Measuring the Intentional World, Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment, and The Empathy Gap. He has been interviewed in The New York Times, on Latino USA, and Martha Stewart Radio, and has written for the Chicago Tribune and Psychology Today.
Ch 1 Wonder and the Feeling of Understanding
Ch 2 Explanatory Fluency and the False Climb
Ch 3 The Biology Behind the Feeling
Ch 4 Believing the Best Explanation
Ch 5 Good Theories, Lucky Hunches
Ch 6 Newton's Hunch
Ch 7 Conclusion
References
Endnotes
| Erscheinungsdatum | 23.04.2016 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 3 |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 211 x 147 mm |
| Gewicht | 363 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Geschichtstheorie / Historik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie | |
| Naturwissenschaften | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-938507-6 / 0199385076 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-938507-2 / 9780199385072 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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