(P/B) THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF NATURE

Παρουσίαση

Throughout the history of the Western world, science has possessed an extraordinary amount of authority and prestige. And while its pedestal has been jostled by numerous evolutions and revolutions, science has always managed to maintain its stronghold as the knowing enterprise that explains how the natural world works: we treat such legendary scientists as Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein with admiration and reverence because they offer profound and sustaining insight into the meaning of the universe.
In "The Intelligibility of Nature", Peter Dear considers how science as such has evolved and how it has marshaled itself to make sense of the world. His intellectual journey begins with a crucial observation: that the enterprise of science is, and has been, directed toward two distinct but frequently conflated ends - doing and knowing. The ancient Greeks developed this distinction of value between craft on the one hand and understanding on the other, and according to Dear, that distinction survived to shape attitudes toward science ever since. But what is understanding? How have people crafted their sciences to render the world intelligible? And how has that related to what they do?
Teasing out this tension between doing and knowing during key episodes in the history of science -mechanical philosophy and Newtonian gravitation; elective affinities and the chemical revolution; enlightened natural history and taxonomy; evolutionary biology; the dynamical theory of electromagnetism; and quantum theory- Dear reveals how the two principles became formalized into a single enterprise, science, that would be carried out by a new kind of person, the scientist.
Finely nuanced and elegantly conceived, "The Intelligibility of Nature" will be essential reading for aficionados and historians of science alike. (From the publisher)

«"The Intelligibility of Nature" is a very impressive and compelling book about the relationship between instrumentalism and realism in the sciences from 1600 to 1950. Peter Dear argues for a fascinating reinterpretation of the Scientific Revolution and its aftermath, showing how between the time of Descartes and that of Lavoisier, natural philosophy and practical techniques merged: that process, this book shows, was decisive for the emergence of modern science. This is a lucid and intelligent history.» (SIMON SCHAFFER, University of Cambridge)
«"The Intelligibility of Nature" considers the nature of science as it has developed and evolved in the modern West. Peter Dear explores what intelligibility and instrumentality have meant to scientists since Newton's day, and how their changing and conflicting conceptions have affected the fortunes of specific scientific claims, from the advent of the scientific revolution to the development of quantum mechanics. This is an interesting, enjoyable, and rewarding read.» (ADRIAN JOHNS, University of Chicago)

Περιεχόμενα

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Science as Natural
Philosophy, Science as Instrumentality
1. The Mechanical Universe from Galileo to Newton
2. A Place for Everything: The Classification of the World
3. The Chemical Revolution Thwarted by Atoms
4. Design and Disorder: The Origin of Species
5. Dynamical Explanation: The Aether and Victorian Machines
6. How to Understand Nature? Einstein, Bohr, and the Quantum Universe
Conclusion: Making Sense in Science
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index