Science


Book Description

This book provides the first integrated account of all factors which play a role in making Science what it is today. The book discusses historical, sociological and philosophical aspects of Science emphasizing their interconnectedness. It describes many of the latest developments in scientific practice as well old unsolved problems. The book aims to be explanatory and stimulating rather than comprehensive. The book is an overview of important issues and aims to present these issues in the context of not only Society but of Science itself. One of the important aims of the book is to clarify misconceptions about Science held by general public or by scientists themselves. Science and scientists in this book are presented in their true light, not as stereotyped by the media.




Science: A Many-splendored Thing


Book Description

This book provides the first integrated account of all factors which play a role in making Science what it is today. The book discusses historical, sociological and philosophical aspects of Science emphasizing their interconnectedness. It describes many of the latest developments in scientific practice as well old unsolved problems. The book aims to be explanatory and stimulating rather than comprehensive. The book is an overview of important issues and aims to present these issues in the context of not only Society but of Science itself. One of the important aims of the book is to clarify misconceptions about Science held by general public or by scientists themselves. Science and scientists in this book are presented in their true light, not as stereotyped by the media.




Future-Proof Science


Book Description

Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics - those who spread doubt about science - often employ a simple argument: scientists were 'sure' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. Peter Vickers argues that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95% of that community would describe the claim as a 'scientific fact'. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.




Identifying Future-Proof Science


Book Description

Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics - those who spread doubt about science - often employ a simple argument: scientists were 'sure' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. Peter Vickers argues that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95% of that community would describe the claim as a 'scientific fact'. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.




Science and the Theory of God


Book Description

The supposed tension between religion and science is explored in this book in a most anecdotal and refreshing way. From the beginning, the author, Xavier L. Suarez, makes no assumptions about the existence of God, or the nature of God, if he/she/it exists. Instead, Suarez engages the reader in an objective discussion of what empirical and social science says about the likelihood of an infinite big banger or first cause who propelled the universe about fourteen billion years ago, endowing it with matter, space-time, and order. Moving very quickly from astrophysics to history, psychology and sociology, Suarez looks at the God theory in a most entertaining way. Questions like why bad things happen to good people? and whether our species is just a more intelligent edition of animals are tackled in a conversational style that is readable and even fun. In the end, the author concludes that the God theory is quite consistent with the latest discoveries of science.




New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress


Book Description

This collection of original essays offers a comprehensive examination of scientific progress, which has been a central topic in recent debates in philosophy of science. Traditionally, debates over scientific progress have focused on different methodological approaches, notably the epistemic and semantic approaches. The chapters in Part I of the book examine these two traditional approaches, as well as the newly revived functional and newly developed noetic approaches. Part II features in-depth case studies of scientific progress from the history of science. The chapters cover individual sciences including physics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, seismology, psychology, sociology, economics, and medicine. Finally, Part III of the book explores important issues from contemporary philosophy of science. These chapters address the implications of scientific progress for the scientific realism/anti-realism debate, incommensurability, values in science, idealisation, scientific speculation, interdisciplinarity, and scientific perspectivalism. New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on the history and philosophy of science.




The Question of Methodological Naturalism


Book Description

The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological naturalism. The Question of Methodological Naturalism offers ten thoughtful engagements with that perennial question for the academic study of religion. Contributors include established senior scholars and newer voices propounding a range of perspectives, resulting in both surprising points of convergence and irreconcilable differences in how our shared discipline should be conceptualized and practiced.




New Frontiers in Science and Technology Studies


Book Description

Steve Fuller has a reputation for setting the terms of debate within science and technology studies. In his latest book, New Frontiers in Science and Technology Studies he charts the debates likely to be of relevance in the coming years. Should science and technology be treated as separate entities? What impact has globalization had on science and technology? Can science be clearly distinguished from other forms of knowledge? Does the politicization of science really matter? Is there a role for the social regulation of scientific inquiry? Should we be worried about research fraud? These questions are explored by examining an array of historical, philosophical and contemporary sources. Attention is paid, for example, to the Bruno Latour's The Politics of Nature as a model for science policy, as well as the global controversy surrounding Bjorn Lomborg's The Sceptical Environmentalist, which led to the dismantling and re-establishment of the Danish national research ethics board. New Frontiers in Science and Technology Studies will appeal strongly to scholars and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses concerned with the social dimensions of science and technology, and anyone who cares about the future of science.







I, Anatolia and Other Plays


Book Description

Since the middle of the twentieth century, Turkish playwriting has been notable for its verve and versatility. This two-volume anthology is the first major collection of modern Turkish plays in English—a selection dealing with ancient Anatolian mythology, Ottoman history, contemporary social issues, family dramas, and ribald comedy from Turkey’s cities and rural areas. It also includes several plays set outside Turkey. The second volume, "I, Anatolia” and Other Plays, includes eight major plays from the 1970s through the end of the millennium. Together, both volumes grant to English readers the pleasure of riveting drama in translations that are colloquial as well as faithful. For producers, directors, and actors they provide a wealth of fresh, new material, with characters ranging from Ottoman sultans to a Soviet cosmonaut, from the Byzantine Empress Theodora to a fisherman’s wife, from residents of an Istanbul neighborhood to King Midas, from Montezuma to a Turkish cabinet minister.