Science in the looking glass : what do scientists really know? / E. Brian Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davies, E. B. (Edward Brian)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science.

Science--History.

History.

Science--Philosophy.

Physical Description:

x, 295 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Summary:

How do scientific conjectures become laws? Why does proof mean different things in different sciences? Do numbers exist, or were they invented? Why do some laws turn out to be wrong?

In this wide-ranging book, Brian Davies discusses the basis for scientists' claims to knowledge about the world. He looks at science historically, emphasizing not only the achievements of scientists from Galileo onwards, but also their mistakes. He rejects the claim that all scientific knowledge is provisional, by citing examples from chemistry, biology and geology. A major feature of the book is its defence of the view that mathematics was invented rather than discovered. While experience has shown that disentangling scientific knowledge from opinion and aspiration is a hard task, this book provides a clear guide to the difficulties.

Full of illuminating examples and quotations, and with a scope ranging from psychology and evolution to quantum theory and mathematics, this book brings alive issues at the heart of all science.

Contents:

1 Perception and Language 1

1.1 Preamble 1

1.2 Light and Vision 3

The Perception of Colour 4

Interpretation and Illusion 6

Disorders of the Brain 13

The World of a Bat 15

What Do We See? 16

1.3 Language 18

Physiological Aspects of Language 18

Social Aspects of Language 22

Objects, Concepts, and Existence 24

Numbers as Social Constructs 27

2 Theories of the Mind 33

2.1 Preamble 33

2.2 Mind-Body Dualism 34

Plato 34

Mathematical Platonism 37

The Rotation of Triangles 41

Descartes and Dualism 43

Dualism in Society 46

2.3 Varieties of Consciousness 49

Can Computers Be Conscious? 50

Godel and Penrose 52

3 Arithmetic 61

Whole Numbers 62

Small Numbers 62

Medium Numbers 64

Large Numbers 65

What Do Large Numbers Represent? 66

Addition 67

Multiplication 68

Inaccessible and Huge Numbers 71

Peano's Postulates 75

Infinity 78

4 How Hard can Problems Get? 85

The Four Colour Problem 87

Goldbach's Conjecture 88

Fermat's Last Theorem 89

Finite Simple Groups 90

A Practically Insoluble Problem 91

Algorithms 93

How to Handle Hard Problems 96

5 Pure Mathematics 99

5.2 Origins 100

Greek Mathematics 100

The Invention of Algebra 103

The Axiomatic Revolution 103

Projective Geometry 107

5.3 The Search for Foundations 109

5.4 Against Foundations 113

Empiricism in Mathematics 116

From Babbage to Turing 117

Finite Computing Machines 123

Passage to the Infinite 125

Are Humans Logical? 127

5.5 The Real Number System 130

A Brief History 131

What is Equality? 134

Constructive Analysis 135

Non-standard Analysis 137

5.6 The Computer Revolution 138

6 Mechanics and Astronomy 143

6.1 Seventeenth Century Astronomy 143

Galileo 146

Kepler 151

Newton 153

The Law of Universal Gravitation 154

6.2 Laplace and Determinism 157

Chaos in the Solar System 158

Hyperion 160

Molecular Chaos 161

A Trip to Infinity 163

The Theory of Relativity 164

7 Probability and Quantum Theory 171

7.1 The Theory of Probability 171

Kolmogorov's Axioms 172

Disaster Planning 174

The Paradox of the Children 175

The Letter Paradox 175

The Three Door Paradox 176

The National Lottery 177

Probabilistic Proofs 178

What is a Random Number? 179

Bubbles and Foams 181

Kolmogorov Complexity 182

7.2 Quantum Theory 183

History of Atomic Theory 184

The Key Enigma 186

Quantum Probability 188

Quantum Particles 190

The Three Aspects of Quantum Theory 192

Quantum Modelling 193

Measuring Atomic Energy Levels 195

The EPR Paradox 196

Reflections 198

Schrodinger's Cat 199

8 Is Evolution a Theory? 203

The Public Perception 204

The Geological Record 205

Dating Techniques 209

The Mechanisms of Inheritance 213

Theories of Evolution 217

Some Common Objections 225

9 Against Reductionism 235

Biochemistry and Cell Physiology 238

Prediction or Explanation 240

Money 242

Information and Complexity 243

Subjective Consciousness 245

The Chinese Room 246

Zombies and Related Issues 248

A Physicalist View 250

10 Some Final Thoughts 253

Order and Chaos 253

Anthropic Principles 256

From Hume to Popper 259

Empiricism versus Realism 266

The Sociology of Science 270

Science and Technology 274.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [281]-287) and index.

ISBN:

0198525435

OCLC:

52324186