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Author: Leopold Infeld
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physicists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Rob Wesson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681773775
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Everybody knows—or thinks they know—Charles Darwin, the father of evolution and the man who altered the way we view our place in the world. But what most people do not know is that Darwin was on board the HMS Beagle as a geologist—on a mission to examine the land, not flora and fauna.Tracing Darwin’s footsteps in South America and beyond, geologist Rob Wesson sets out on a trek across the Andes, repeating the nautical surveys made by the Beagle’s crew, hunting for fossils in Uruguay and Argentina, and explores traces of long vanished glaciers in Scotland and Wales. By following Darwin’s path literally and intellectually, Rob experiences the landscape that absorbed Darwin, followed his reasoning about what he saw, and immerses himself in the same questions about the earth. Upon Darwin’s return from the five-year journey, he conceived his theory of tectonics—his first theory. These concepts and attitudes—the vastness of time; the enormous cumulative impact of almost imperceptibly slow change; change as a constant feature of the environment—underlie his subsequent discoveries in evolution. And this peculiar way of thinking remains vitally important today as we enter the Anthropocene.

Author: Leopold Infeld
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 9780821840733
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Leopold Infeld was one of the nine eminent scientists who, together with Albert Einstein, signed Bertrand Russell's famous letter warning that in this nuclear age, only a ban on war itself could save this planet (July, 1955). This autobiography of Infeld contains a vivid description of this long-since-vanished world.

Author: Robert M. Hazen
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 9780309103107
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Scientist Robert Hazen attempts to offer a scientific explanation of how life on Earth began nearly four billion years ago, describing the sequence of events that caused non-living chemicals to become alive and create life.

Author: Steve Fuller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317592468
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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The theory of knowledge, or epistemology, is often regarded as a dry topic that bears little relation to actual knowledge practices. Knowledge: The Philosophical Quest in History addresses this perception by showing the roots, developments and prospects of modern epistemology from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day. Beginning with an introduction to the central questions and problems in theory of knowledge, Steve Fuller goes on to demonstrate that contemporary epistemology is enriched by its interdisciplinarity, analysing keys areas including: Epistemology as Cognitive Economics Epistemology as Divine Psychology Epistemology as Philosophy of Science Epistemology as Sociology of Science Epistemology and Postmodernism. A wide-ranging and historically-informed assessment of the ways in which man has - and continues to - pursue, question, contest, expand and shape knowledge, this book is essential reading anyone in the Humanities and Social Sciences interested in the history and practical application of epistemology.

Author: John Polkinghorne
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300178395
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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From the vantage point of eighty years, a highly regarded scientist and theologian surveys the full spectrum of critical issues between science and theologyJohn Polkinghorne, an international figure known both for his contributions to the field of theoretical elementary particle physics and for his work as a theologian, has over the years filled a bookshelf with writings devoted to specific topics in science and religion. In this new book, he undertakes for the first time a survey of all the major issues at the intersection of science and religion, concentrating on what he considers the essential insights for each. Clearly and without assuming prior knowledge, he addresses causality, cosmology, evolution, consciousness, natural theology, divine providence, revelation, and scripture. Each chapter also provides references to his other books in which more detailed treatments of specific issues can be found.For those who are new to what Polkinghorne calls "one of the most significant interdisciplinary interactions of our time," this volume serves as an excellent introduction. For readers already familiar with John Polkinghorne's books, this latest is a welcome reminder of the breadth of his thought and the subtlety of his approach in the quest for truthful understanding.

Author: Paul Alsberg
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483151557
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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In Quest of Man: A Biological Approach to the Problem of Man's Place in Nature presents man's essential nature to take part in cultural evolution as well as in biological evolution. This book provides the framework for the understanding of living things in general. Organized into four parts encompassing 21 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the principle that started and governed the particular process of human cultural evolution. This text then discusses, in the light of human evolution, man's place in nature, his evolutionary career, and his natural destination. Other chapters consider the underlying compulsory principle that is appropriately called as the principle of body-compulsion. This book discusses as well the exposition of the exclusive principle that is responsible for the singular heterogeneity of human evolution. The final chapter deals with the argument that manlikeness of apes is an essential animal attribute, which refers to a certain resemblance to the human form and does not imply nor mean identity. This book is a valuable resource for scientists, sociologists, biologists, and geneticists.

Author: Michael Marshall
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022671537X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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From the primordial soup to meteorite impact zones, the Manhattan Project to the latest research, this book is the first full history of the scientists who strive to explain the genesis of life. How did life begin? Why are we here? These are some of the most profound questions we can ask. For almost a century, a small band of eccentric scientists has struggled to answer these questions and explain one of the greatest mysteries of all: how and why life began on Earth. There are many different proposals, and each idea has attracted passionate believers who promote it with an almost religious fervor, as well as detractors who reject it with equal passion. But the quest to unravel life’s genesis is not just a story of big ideas. It is also a compelling human story, rich in personalities, conflicts, and surprising twists and turns. Along the way, the journey takes in some of the greatest discoveries in modern biology, from evolution and cells to DNA and life’s family tree. It is also a search whose end may finally be in sight. In The Genesis Quest, Michael Marshall shows how the quest to understand life’s beginning is also a journey to discover the true nature of life, and by extension our place in the universe.

Author: James Davison Hunter
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300196288
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Why efforts to create a scientific basis of morality are neither scientific nor moral In this illuminating book, James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky trace the origins and development of the centuries-long, passionate, but ultimately failed quest to discover a scientific foundation for morality. The "new moral science" led by such figures as E. O. Wilson, Patricia Churchland, Sam Harris, Jonathan Haidt, and Joshua Greene is only the newest manifestation of that quest. Though claims for its accomplishments are often wildly exaggerated, this new iteration has been no more successful than its predecessors. But rather than giving up in the face of this failure, the new moral science has taken a surprising turn. Whereas earlier efforts sought to demonstrate what is right and wrong, the new moral scientists have concluded, ironically, that right and wrong don't actually exist. Their (perhaps unwitting) moral nihilism turns the science of morality into a social engineering project. If there is nothing moral for science to discover, the science of morality becomes, at best, a feeble program to achieve arbitrary societal goals. Concise and rigorously argued, Science and the Good is a definitive critique of a would-be science that has gained extraordinary influence in public discourse today and an exposé of that project's darker turn.

Author: Paul Dehn Carleton
Publisher: Paul Dehn Carleton
ISBN: 9780974558301
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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"Concepts" is a search for theism's roots - coined prototheism - a science of religion. Its notion is: Belief in God is a misconception of the Life Urge emerging from deep in human nature. "Concepts" traces Life's trajectory - from Earth's origin, to consciousness, to today's runaway material culture.