This fascinating book gives a different perspective on the scientific revolution, and an explanation for why that great leap forward took place between 1600 and 1700, rather than, say, a couple of thousand years ago.
The “iron rule of explanation”, that only empirical evidence counts, and of its consequence in “Baconian convergence” explains so much. Moreover, the exploration of how, and why, the social, cultural, and religious context enabled researchers of the time to separate their personal explorations and investigations from those they set forth in the wider scientific community is equally absorbing.
It gave an explanation for a real puzzle in the history of the development of science and civilisation, and brought alive the characters involved.
* Why is science so powerful? * Why did it take so long-two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics-for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe?
In a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument.
Like such classic works as Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of…
It gave me insight into perspectives I had not considered. Time is possibly the most intriguing of mysteries of the universe and of the human condition.
They explained how our understanding of time has changed, from us having a fixed universal time, through the entwining of space and time dimensions, to the challenge of non-local interactions and beyond. It is remarkably broad, covering recent developments and cutting-edge ideas.
Modern physics has revealed the universe as a much stranger place than we could have imagined. The puzzle at the centre of our knowledge of the universe is time. Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things. He investigates philosophical questions about past, present, and future, our experience of time, and the possibility of time travel. And he provides the most careful, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the physics of time and the structure of the universe. He guides us step by step through relativity theory and quantum physics, introducing and explaining the ground-breaking…
It is a great (true) story about how ancient understandings were brought back into the world through the struggles and determination of medieval scholars.
In particular, it tells the story of “the book hunter”, Poggio Bracciolini, as he scoured European monasteries, seeking old manuscripts which had been copied, and recopied from ancient Latin texts.
In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years.
It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to…
Amy's bad luck started when she lost her charm bracelet. From then on, unfortunate things just kept on happening. Feeling tired after losing three games of Snakes and Ladders in a row, Amy wondered if you can make luck, or if it happens by accident. Are some people just naturally lucky? And why is bad luck different from good luck? Guided by her friend, the talking ladybird, she sets off on a journey for the source of luck, visiting strange places and encountering all sorts of strange creatures, including Mr. Clognor, who is forever tossing coins, Miss Starling, who is determined to win the great race, and a talking bush who knows more about cake than any bush ought to. But will she find luck, and will she find her lost bracelet?
