For a brief time in history, it was possible to imagine that a sufficiently advanced intellect could, given sufficient time and resources, in principle understand how to mathematically prove everything that was true.
This book discusses the physical and mathematical foundations of modern quantum mechanics and three realistic quantum theories that John Stuart Bell called "e;theories without observers"e; because they do not merely speak about measurements but develop an objective picture of the physical world.
This revealing work examines an approach from ancient astronomy to what was then a particularly important question, namely that of understanding the relationship between the position in the ecliptic and the time it takes for a fixed-length of the ecliptic beginning at that point to rise above the eastern horizon.
This influential book discusses the nature of mathematical discovery, development, methodology and practice, forming Imre Lakatos''s theory of ''proofs and refutations''.
The publication in 1632 of Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican marked a crucial moment in the 'scientific revolution' and helped Galileo become the 'father of modern science'.
In Neurocognitive Mechanisms Gualtiero Piccinini presents the most systematic, rigorous, and comprehensive philosophical defence to date of the computational theory of cognition.
Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of the contemporary debate over divine providential action and the natural sciences, suggesting a re-consideration of Thomas Aquinas' metaphysical doctrine of providence coupled with his account of natural contingency.
L on Brunschvicg's contribution to philosophical thought in fin-de-si cle France receives full explication in the first English-language study on his work.
This book traces the evolution of our understanding and utilization of light from classical antiquity and the early thoughts of Pythagoras to the present time.
Zwischen den neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien und der zunehmend geforderten Balance von Erwerbsarbeits- und Privatleben bestehen komplexe Zusammenhänge.
The present volume originated in 2001 when we, together with our publishing editors at (then) Kluwer Academic Publishers, realized that the th following year the 50 volume of our journal Acta Biotheoretica would see the light.
This book presents a multidisciplinary guide to gauge theory and gravity, with chapters by the world's leading theoretical physicists, mathematicians, historians and philosophers of science.
This book addresses a variety of topics within the growing discipline of Archaeoastronomy, focusing especially on Archaeoastronomy in Sicily and the Mediterranean and Cultural Astronomy.
Friedrich Rapp, in this magisterial and critical essay on technology, the complex human phenomenon that demands philosophy of science, philosophy of culture, moral insight, and historical sensi- tivity for its understanding, writes modestly of the grave and ten- tative situation in the philosophy of technology.
The author makes a unique contribution to the field by discussing the history and philosophy of the neurosciences, and then developing critical approaches which integrate techniques, theory, and ethics.
In July 2006, a major international conference was held at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada, to celebrate the career and work of a remarkable man of letters.
This book provides a survey of key process-philosophical approaches that, in conversation with selected concepts across the biological and physical sciences, help us to think about living processes, or 'lived time,' at different scales of functioning.
The Genesis of Logic addresses the principles of common-sense reasoning, which are employed in everyday decision-making processes and extend beyond deductive reasoning alone.
The Political Thought of Karl Popper offers a controversial treatment of Popper's ideas about politics, informed by Shearmur's personal knowledge of Popper together with research on unpublished material in the Popper archive at the Hoover Institute.
These essays on the conceptual understanding of modern physics strike directly at some of the principal difficulties faced by contemporary philos- ophers of physical science.
Angesichts anhaltender Diskussionen um die notwendige oder wünschenswerte Förderung von Forschung und Wissenschaft unternimmt das Buch den Versuch, akademische Forschung als ein für demokratische Gesellschaften unverzichtbares Element öffentlicher Debatten und damit der öffentlichen Entscheidungsfindung zu verteidigen.
This book fills a significant gap in the historiography of science by examining the overlooked contributions of non-astronomical personnel in the early National Astronomical Observatory of Chile.
L on Brunschvicg's contribution to philosophical thought in fin-de-si cle France receives full explication in the first English-language study on his work.
This is the first of a pair of volumes by Jonathan Hodge, collecting all his most innovative, revisionist and influential papers on Charles Darwin and on the longer run of theories about origins and species from ancient times to the present.