Is science neurotic? / Nicholas Maxwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maxwell, Nicholas, 1937-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

xx, 240 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Imperial College Press ; Hackensack, NJ : Distrubuted by World Scientific Pub., [2004]

Summary:

Is Science Neurotic? sets out to show that science suffers from a damaging but rarely noticed methodological disease -- "rationalistic neurosis." Assumptions concerning metaphysics, human value and politics, implicit in the aims of science, are repressed, and the malaise has spread to affect the whole academic enterprise, with the potential for extraordinarily damaging long-term consequences.The book begins with a discussion of the aims and methods of natural science, and moves on to discuss social science, philosophy, education, psychoanalytic theory and academic inquiry as a whole. It makes an original and compelling contribution to the current debate between those for and those against science, arguing that science would be of greater human value if it were more rigorous -- we suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little. The author discusses the need for a revolution in the aims of science and academic inquiry in general and, in a lively and accessible style, spells out a thesis with profound importance for the long-term future of humanity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-228) and index.

ISBN:

1860945007

OCLC:

57758405