Naturvetenskapens filosofi
7 991 produkter
7 991 produkter
- Nyhet
The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, Deepmind, and the Quest for Superintelligence
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
352 kr
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248 kr
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Tankens Villkor - vid tänkandets gränserVilka frågor kan vi besvara? Kommer vi någon gång att helt förstå den värld som omger oss? Finns det gränser för den naturvetenskapliga kunskap vi människor kan samla, eller har vi en vacker dag en "teori för allt"?De frågor människan söker svar på kan ha väldigt olika karaktär. Hur uppstod Universum? Finns Gud? Kan man se in i framtiden? Levde människor i Sverige före senaste istiden? Finns spöken? Var Hamlet vänsterhänt? Kan alla jämna tal skrivas som summan av två primtal? Är alla paradoxer skenbara?Vissa frågor kan vi besvara redan nu, andra kan vi möjligen någon gång finna svaret på och vissa frågor är inte ens vettigt ställda. Några kan vi emellertid inte alls besvara. Jag kommer att diskutera några av de svår- eller olösliga frågorna om världen, om språket och inte minst om matematiken. Vi kommer att möta intressanta hinder. Ett är intraktabilitet: problemlösningen är alltför omfattande för att någonsin kunna utföras! Ett annat är att problemets lösning inte finns i det system problemet är formulerat i.Avsnitt ur boken har tilldelats andra pris i Forskning och Framstegs manuspristävling "Vändpunkter".Jan Scheffel är forskare och lärare vid Alfvénlaboratoriet på KTH i Stockholm. Han har varit intresserad av filosofi och vetenskapens grunder ända sedan barnsben.
147 kr
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Har forskarna rätt när de säger att vacciner är säkra? Ska vi tro på de experter som varnar oss för den globala uppvärmningen? Forskare är ju bara människor som kan ta fel, som har egna fördomar och intressen som påverkar hur de tänker och vad de säger. Naomi Oreskes försvarar vetenskapen utan att förneka dess sociala och mänskliga karaktär. Tvärtom är det vetenskapens sociala natur som är dess styrka och som ger oss anledning att lita på den. Med konkreta exempel visar hon hur forskningen ibland går vilse men också hur en öppen och diversifierad forskningsgemenskap avslöjar och korrigerar misstag.
Naomi Oreskes är professor i vetenskapshistoria vid Harvard. Hennes mest kända verk (skrivet tillsammans med Erik Conway) är Merchants of Doubt som handlar om hur en handfull forskare, från 50-talet och in i vår tid, fördunklade sanningen om frågor från tobaksrök till global uppvärmning, och därmed försenade och försvårade viktiga politiska beslut. I den här boken utvecklar hon de tankar om en välfungerande vetenskap som skisserades i det tidigare verket.
Världen och vetandet sjunger på nytt : från en mekanisk värld till ett kreativt universum
Häftad, Svenska, 1994
150 kr
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Newton gav oss Lagen som vi levt under i 300 år. Lagen om en hård, fragmenterad värld som fungerar mekaniskt förutbestämt. Idag har nobelpristagaren Ilya Prigogine och en rad andra nytänkare visat oss en värld som existerar på samma sätt som vi människor. Som självorganiserande process och självständigt system. Som skapar sig själv, uppehåller sig själv, reglerar sig själv och omskapar sig själv. Med hjälp av ett stort antal skrifter av forskare från olika områden fysik, kemi och biologi, humaniora, samhällsvetenskap och teologi presenterar och diskuterar Erland Lagerroth här detta nya och omtumlande tänkande om ett kreativt universum. Och därtill en forskning som syftar till vägledning och visdom. Bland de presenterade nytänkarna märks förutom Prigogine Erich Jantsch, Gregory Bateson, David Bohm, Paul Davies, Ken Wilber och Anthony Wilden. "... en i god mening originell bok, fylld av otaliga läsefrukter, av omfattande vetande och obändigt sökande, av entusiasm och frimodighet." (NWT.) "Alltihop är oerhört spännande!" (Tomas Löfström, SDS.)
196 kr
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Immanuel Kant var väl insatt i sin tids naturvetenskap, vilket främst kom till uttryck i hans Himlens allmänna naturhistoria och teori (1755, på svenska 2013). Han skrev även en hel del annat i naturvetenskapliga ämnen, av vilka några uppsatser som handlar om fysiska förhållanden hos jorden och månen nu föreligger i svensk översättning med kommentarer om hur de stått sig inför dagens vetande. Den första tar upp tidvattnets inverkan på jordens rotation där drog Kant 1754 en banbrytande slutsats, som emellertid inte beaktades i närmare hundra år. De andra rör jordbävningar och deras orsaker år 1755 skakades stora delar av Europa av en våldsam jordbävning som bland annat ödelade Lissabon samt hur vindar uppkommer, vulkaner på månen och månens tänkbara inverkan på jordens väder.
67 kr
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Evolutionsteorin och Darwins idéer om det naturliga urvalet sägs ofta vara den bästa idé någon någonsin fått. Men även om teorierna står starka på ett övergripande plan, så finns där många luckor och lösa trådar på några av livets riktigt stora frågor.Den här boken handlar om evolutionen och dig och mig och oss alla - vårt jag. Ganska lite är känt om vad detta jag eller medvetandet egentligen är. Är de ens materiella? Behöver de vara det? Och är vi verkligen intelligentare än våra förfäder?Evolutionen och jag belyser mänskligt vetande och evolution ur en rad aspekter: moral, könsroller, religion, artificiell intelligens och mikroorganismer. Slutsatserna är ofta förvånande, för vad vet vi egentligen om vår egen historia? Vi följer med på en ögonöppnande resa som tar oss från det första livet på jorden tills där vi är idag - och ännu längre.*Johan Frostegård är forskare, författare och professor i medicin, samt fil. kand. i ekonomisk historia. Han är överläkare vid Karolinska universitetssjukhuset, men har också skrivit romaner och är aktiv som uppfinnare.
225 kr
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Bacon betonar vikten av att experimentera, av att systematiskt och under kontrollerade former göra observationer, av att utsätta teorier och hypoteser för en reell prövning och att inte bara nöja sig med att leta efter ett fåtal bekräftande instanser.
I dag skulle få ifrågasätta värdet av dessa strategier. Men på Bacons tid var det givetvis annorlunda, och vad kontrasten mellan Bacons ikonoklastiska tonläge och moderna läsares reaktioner väl närmast illustrerar är det enorma inflytande den moderna vetenskapssyn som Bacon var tidig med att artikulera kommit att få i våra samhällen och kulturer.
Man hade unnat Bacon att få bevittna resultatet av detta segertåg, vilka han kanske inte ens i sina vildaste drömmar hade kunnat föreställa sig. Visst finns det oroande och motgående rörelser, både nu och tidigare. Men de massiva framgångar vetenskaperna haft sedan Bacons tid, liksom deras genomgripande påverkan av människans livsvillkor, är svåra att förneka.
Ur Folke Tersmans förord
189 kr
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Det här är inte en filosofihistoria. Men nästan. Jag har skrivit om mycket ur filosofihistorien men inte allt. Jag har inriktat mej på frågor kring metafysik, fysik och matematik men en del annat har kommit med också. Filosofin brukar ju vanligtvis ses som ett humanistiskt ämne idag, vilket jag delvis är kritisk till. Utan naturfilosofin så hade naturvetenskapen aldrig uppkommit och än idag så vinner bägge på att samarbeta. Filosofer som inte kom med i den här boken har ännu chans att komma med i en framtida bok. Jag har ju redan släppt en bok om kvantfysikens filosofi, vilket förklarar varför det ämnet inte är med här.
169 kr
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När barn hör en historia om hur ett litet ungdjur blir uppätet av ett rovdjur och får frågor om det behöver sin hjärna längre, så svarar de flesta att det behöver inte sin hjärna längre. På följdfrågan, om de tror att ungdjuret tycker om sin mamma fast det inte kan använda sin hjärna längre, svarar de flesta småbarn att det fortfarande tycker om sin mamma såklart. Lika rörande som det lilla barnet är, när det tillskriver det döda djuret, eller sin nallebjörn, känslor, lika frånstötande tycker nog många att det vore att se en vuxen människa bära omkring en docka som var gjord som en exakt kopia av en dött barn. Vi är ju också födda med en inbyggd vämjelse mot infekterat dött kött. Vi är gjorda av kött, men väcker inte avsmak så länge vi har en "ande" inom oss. En tillräckligt personlik docka väcker däremot automatiskt denna avsmak. Denna bok handlar om hur vi alla är dockor av kött och blod, infekterade av virus som är allt annat än andliga.
347 kr
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I Naturens dialektik, som ansetts vara ett av marxismens grundläggande arbeten, ger Friedrich Engels en allmän framställning enligt det dialektiskt-materialistiska synsättet av naturvetenskapernas viktigaste landvinningar vid mitten av 1800-talet, vidareutvecklar den materialistiska dialektiken och kritiskt analyserar de metafysiska och idealistiska uppfattningarna inom naturvetenskapen. Naturens dialektik är resultatet av det mångåriga och grundliga studium av naturvetenskaperna som Engels företog. Det material, som hänför sig till Naturens dialektik skrevs ned under perioden 1873 till 1876. Engels studerade en omfattande litteratur kring naturvetenskapens viktigaste frågor och skrev tio mer eller mindre avslutade artiklar och kapitel och mer än 170 noter och fragment. Under åren lade Engels ned ett väldigt arbete; men det lyckades inte för honom att i full utsträckning förverkliga sina planer. Naturens dialektik förblev ofullbordad.
231 kr
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718 kr
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Quantum mechanics impacts on many areas of physics from pure theory to applications. However it is difficult to interpret, and philosophical contradictions and counter-intuitive results are apparent at a fundamental level. This book presents current understanding of the theory, providing a historical introduction and discussing many of its interpretations. Fully revised from the first edition, this book contains state-of-the-art research including loophole-free experimental Bell test, and theorems on the reality of the wave function including the PBR theorem, and a new section on quantum simulation. More interpretations are now included, and these are described and compared, including discussion of their successes and difficulties. Other sections have been expanded, including quantum error correction codes and the reference section. It is ideal for researchers in physics and maths, and philosophers of science interested in quantum physics and its foundations.
The Matter With Things
Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World
Inbunden, Engelska, 2021
1 389 kr
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In this landmark new book, Iain McGilchrist addresses some of the oldest and hardest questions humanity faces – ones that, however, have a practical urgency for all of us today. Who are we? What is the world? How can we understand consciousness, matter, space and time? Is the cosmos without purpose or value? Can we really neglect the sacred and divine?In doing so, he argues that we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by the brain’s left hemisphere, one that blinds us to an awe-inspiring reality that is all around us, had we but eyes to see it. He suggests that in order to understand ourselves and the world we need science and intuition, reason and imagination, not just one or two; that they are in any case far from being in conflict; and that the brain’s right hemisphere plays the most important part in each. And he shows us how to recognise the ‘signature’ of the left hemisphere in our thinking, so as to avoid making decisions that bring disaster in their wake.Following the paths of cutting-edge neurology, philosophy and physics, he reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the world, one that is both profound and beautiful – and happens to be in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom. It is a vision that returns the world to life, and us to a better way of living in it: one we must embrace if we are to survive.
141 kr
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'This is the most important conversation of our time, and Tegmark's thought-provoking book will help you join it' Stephen HawkingTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER. DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEARSELECTED AS ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2018AI is the future - but what will that future look like? Will superhuman intelligence be our slave, or become our god?Taking us to the heart of the latest thinking about AI, Max Tegmark, the MIT professor whose work has helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial, separates myths from reality, utopias from dystopias, to explore the next phase of our existence.How can we grow our prosperity through automation, without leaving people lacking income or purpose? How can we ensure that future AI systems do what we want without crashing, malfunctioning or getting hacked? Should we fear an arms race in lethal autonomous weapons? Will AI help life flourish as never before, or will machines eventually outsmart us at all tasks, and even, perhaps, replace us altogether? 'This is a rich and visionary book and everyone should read it' The Times
Meeting the Universe Halfway
Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning
Häftad, Engelska, 2007
352 kr
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Meeting the Universe Halfway is an ambitious book with far-reaching implications for numerous fields in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In this volume, Karen Barad, theoretical physicist and feminist theorist, elaborates her theory of agential realism. Offering an account of the world as a whole rather than as composed of separate natural and social realms, agential realism is at once a new epistemology, ontology, and ethics. The starting point for Barad’s analysis is the philosophical framework of quantum physicist Niels Bohr. Barad extends and partially revises Bohr’s philosophical views in light of current scholarship in physics, science studies, and the philosophy of science as well as feminist, poststructuralist, and other critical social theories. In the process, she significantly reworks understandings of space, time, matter, causality, agency, subjectivity, and objectivity.In an agential realist account, the world is made of entanglements of “social” and “natural” agencies, where the distinction between the two emerges out of specific intra-actions. Intra-activity is an inexhaustible dynamism that configures and reconfigures relations of space-time-matter. In explaining intra-activity, Barad reveals questions about how nature and culture interact and change over time to be fundamentally misguided. And she reframes understanding of the nature of scientific and political practices and their “interrelationship.” Thus she pays particular attention to the responsible practice of science, and she emphasizes changes in the understanding of political practices, critically reworking Judith Butler’s influential theory of performativity. Finally, Barad uses agential realism to produce a new interpretation of quantum physics, demonstrating that agential realism is more than a means of reflecting on science; it can be used to actually do science.
363 kr
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This text offers an understanding of the nature of scientific, mathematical and engineering practice, and the production of scientific knowledge. The author presents an approach to the unpredictable nature of change in science, taking into account the number of factors - social, technological, conceptual and natural - that interact to affect the creation of scientific knowledge. In his view, machines, instruments, facts, theories, conceptual and mathematical structures, disciplined practices and human beings are in constantly shifting relationships with one another - "mangled" together in ways that are shaped by the contingencies of culture, time and place. Situating material as well as human agency in their larger cultural context, Pickering uses case studies to show how this picture of the open, changeable nature of science advances a greater understanding of scientific work both past and present. He examines the building of the bubble chamber in particle physics, the search for the quark, the construction of the quarternion system in mathematics and the introduction of computer-controlled machine tools in industry.He uses these examples to address the most basic elements of scientific practice - the development of experimental apparatus, the production of facts, the development of theory and the interrelation of machines and social organization.
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Inbunden, Engelska, 2022
309 kr
Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar
564 kr
In this sequence of philosophical essays about natural science, Nancy Cartwright argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe the regularities that exist in nature. Yet she is not `anti-realist'. Rather, she draws a novel distinction, arguing that theoretical entities, and the complex and localized laws that describe them, can be interpreted realistically, but that the simple unifying laws of basic theory cannot.
278 kr
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A panoramic view of the cosmos must begin with the tension of a single political moment. In Quantum History, Slavoj Žižek brings together Hegelian dialectics, Lacan psychoanalysis and quantum mechanics to rethink history, reality and political possibility.Taking up Lenin’s challenge to radically reconsider materialism in the wake of each big scientific discovery, and rejecting the recent vogue for giving a vague spiritualist spin to wave mechanics, Žižek embraces the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics with characteristic erudition and verve. Drawing on the central themes of the holographic universe, non-commutativity and the collapse of superpositions, Žižek evolves a quantum-inspired ontology which reinvents the historical materialism of Hegel and Heidegger – and compels a brutal, often darkly funny, inquisition into the chances of radical emancipatory acts today.Quantum History takes the reader from the absolute contradiction of the primordial void through quantum oscillations to our ordinary reality, weaving in Lacan and Deleuze, Rovelli and Schelling, opera, cinema, sex and war. Žižek is at his sharpest, saddest, most provocative best as he demonstrates that there is no way of extracting ourselves from the texture of history, no neutral position from which the workings of the world can be observed transparently – we must act from a contingent, complex and inscrutable political moment, in sadness and in doubt, but defiantly.
577 kr
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Why is understanding causation so important in philosophy and the sciences? Should causation be defined in terms of probability? Whilst causation plays a major role in theories and concepts of medicine, little attempt has been made to connect causation and probability with medicine itself. Causality, Probability, and Medicine is one of the first books to apply philosophical reasoning about causality to important topics and debates in medicine. Donald Gillies provides a thorough introduction to and assessment of competing theories of causality in philosophy, including action-related theories, causality and mechanisms, and causality and probability. Throughout the book he applies them to important discoveries and theories within medicine, such as germ theory; tuberculosis and cholera; smoking and heart disease; the first ever randomized controlled trial designed to test the treatment of tuberculosis; the growing area of philosophy of evidence-based medicine; and philosophy of epidemiology.This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in philosophy of science and philosophy of medicine, as well as those working in medicine, nursing and related health disciplines where a working knowledge of causality and probability is required.
435 kr
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Giordano Bruno's notorious public death in 1600, at the hands of the Inquisition in Rome, marked the transition from Renaissance philosophy to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. In his philosophical works he addressed such delicate issues as the role of Christ as mediator and the distinction, in human beings, between soul and matter. This volume presents new translations of Cause, Principle and Unity, in which he challenges Aristotelian accounts of causality and spells out the implications of Copernicanism for a new theory of an infinite universe, and of two essays on magic, On Magic and A General Account of Bonding, in which he interprets earlier theories about magical events in the light of the unusual powers of natural phenomena.
397 kr
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Anti-scientific misinformation has become a serious problem on many fronts, including vaccinations and climate change. One of these fronts is the persistence of anti-evolutionism, which has recently been given a superficially professional gloss in the form of the intelligent design movement. Far from solely being of interest to researchers in biology, anti-evolutionism must be recognized as part of a broader campaign with a conservative religious and political agenda. Much of the rhetorical effectiveness of anti-evolutionism comes from its reliance on seemingly precise mathematical arguments. This book, the first of its kind to be written by a mathematician, discusses and refutes these arguments. Along the way, it also clarifies common misconceptions about both biology and mathematics. Both lay audiences and professionals will find the book to be accessible and informative.
141 kr
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An extraordinary and challenging synthesis of ideas uniting Quantum Theory, and the theories of Computation, Knowledge and Evolution, Deutsch's extraordinary book explores the deep connections between these strands which reveal the fabric of realityin which human actions and ideas play essential roles.
510 kr
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This book develops a new approach to naturalizing phenomenology. The author proposes to integrate phenomenology with the mechanistic framework that offers new methodological perspectives for studying complex mental phenomena such as consciousness.While mechanistic explanatory models are widely applied in cognitive science, their approach to describing subjective phenomena is limited. The author argues that phenomenology can fill this gap. He proposes two novel ways of integrating phenomenology and mechanism. First, he presents a new reading of phenomenological analyses as functional analyses. Such functional phenomenology delivers a functional sketch of a target system and provides constraints on the space of possible mechanisms. Second, he develops the neurophenomenological approach in the direction of dynamic modeling of experience. He shows that neurophenomenology can deliver dynamical constraints on mechanistic models and thus inform the search for an underlying mechanism.Mechanisms and Consciousness will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and the cognitive sciences.
395 kr
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A brand new edition of an internationally-renowned philosophy of science bestseller.
Now well into its fourth decade, What is This Thing Called Science? has become something of a classic the world over, available in 19 languages. Each decade, Alan Chalmers has drawn on his experience as a teacher and researcher to improve and update the text. In his accessible style, Chalmers illuminates the major developments in the field of the philosophy of science over the past few years.
The most significant feature of this fourth edition is the addition of an extensive postscript, in which Chalmers uses the results of his research into the history of atomism to illustrate and enliven key themes in the philosophy of science. Identifying the qualitative difference between knowledge of atoms as it figures in contemporary science and metaphysical speculations about atoms common in philosophy since the time of Democritus proves to be a highly revealing and instructive way to pinpoint key features of the answer to the question 'What is this thing called science?'
This new edition ensures that the book holds its place as the leading introduction to the philosophy of science for the foreseeable future.
'Successive editions have retained and refined its clear, engaging and witty discussions of the most important topics in the field, incorporating the best new research in the field. This latest edition also adds a valuable layer of grounding in the history of science, particularly based on Chalmers' recent extensive research on the history of atomism'. Hasok Chang, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, UK
225 kr
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Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. It was written for the layman, but proved to be one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of DNA. What is Life? appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, which offer a fascinating account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.
183 kr
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Is there any connection between the vastness of the universes of stars and galaxies and the existence of life on a small planet out in the suburbs of the Milky Way? This book shows that there is. In their classic work, John Barrow and Frank Tipler examine the question of Mankind's place in the Universe, taking the reader on a tour of many scientific disciplines and offering fascinating insights into issues such as the nature of life, the serach for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the past history and fate of our universe.
330 kr
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Farewell to Reason offers a vigorous challenge to the scientific rationalism that underlies Western ideals of "progress" and "development," whose damaging social and ecological consequences are now widely recognized.For all their variety in theme and occasion, the essays in this book share a consistent philosophical purpose. Whether discussing Greek art and thought, vindicating the church's battle with Galileo, exploring the development of quantum physics or exposing the dogmatism of Karl Popper, Feyerabend defends a relativist and historicist notion of the sciences. The appeal to reason, he insists, is empty, and must be replaced by a notion of science that subordinates it to the needs of citizens and communities.Provocative, polemical and rigorously argued, Farewell to Reason will infuriate Feyerabend's critics and delight his many admirers.
386 kr
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If quantum theories of the world are true-and empirical evidence suggests they are-what do they tell us about us, and the world? How should quantum theories make us reevaluate our classical conceptions of material objects? Nearly a century after the development of quantum theories, a consensus has yet to emerge. Many still wonder about what these theories may be telling us about ourselves and our place in the universe.Alyssa Ney here defends and develops a particular framework for understanding the world as it is described by quantum theories. This framework was initially suggested by Schrödinger in the 1920's and was further defended as an account of reality by two philosophers of physics in the 1990's who described it as a necessary point of view for those who argue that quantum theories are correct representations of our world. This framework is called wave function realism, which interprets quantum theories such that its central object is the quantum wave function, interpreted as a field on an extremely high-dimension space. This theory views us, and all objects, as ultimately constituted out of the wave function, and though we seem to occupy three dimensions, the fundamental spatial framework of quantum worlds consists of many more dimensions. Alyssa Ney argues for and advances this view, with the goal of making a case for how this theory how it might be applied to more other relativistic quantum theories, including quantum field theories. Her conclusion develops an account of how we as human beings might ultimately see ourselves and the objects around us as constituted out of the wave function.
201 kr
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A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were-and still are. "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is that kind of book. When it was first published in 1962, it was a landmark event in the history and philosophy of science. And fifty years later, it still has many lessons to teach. With "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", Kuhn challenged long-standing linear notions of scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don't arise from the day-to-day, gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation, but that revolutions in science, those breakthrough moments that disrupt accepted thinking and offer unanticipated ideas, occur outside of "normal science," as he called it. Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences, his ideas on how scientific revolutions bring order to the anomalies that amass over time in research experiments are still instructive in our biotech age.This new edition of Kuhn's essential work in the history of science includes an insightful introductory essay by Ian Hacking that clarifies terms popularized by Kuhn, including paradigm and incommensurability, and applies Kuhn's ideas to the science of today. Usefully keyed to the separate sections of the book, Hacking's essay provides important background information as well as a contemporary context. Newly designed, with an expanded index, this edition will be eagerly welcomed by the next generation of readers seeking to understand the history of our perspectives on science.