The knowledge machine : how irrationality created modern science / Michael Strevens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strevens, Michael, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Methodology.

Science.

Science--Philosophy.

Science--History.

History.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Practical reason.

Irrationality (Philosophy).

Genre:

History.

Instructional and educational works.

Creative nonfiction.

Physical Description:

x, 350 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]

Summary:

"A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. Captivatingly written, interwoven with tantalizing illustrations and historical vignettes ranging from Newton's alchemy to quantum mechanics to the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy, Michael Strevens's wholly original investigation of science asks two fundamental questions: Why is science so powerful? And why did it take so long, two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics, for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of nature? The Knowledge Machine's radical answer is that science calls on its practitioners to do something irrational: by willfully ignoring religion, theoretical beauty, and, especially, philosophy-essentially stripping away all previous knowledge-scientists embrace an unnaturally narrow method of inquiry, channeling unprecedented energy into observation and experimentation. Like Yuval Harari's Sapiens or Thomas Kuhn's 1962 classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine overturns much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: I. THE GREAT METHOD DEBATE

1. Unearthing the Scientific Method

2. Human Frailty

3. The Essential Subjectivity of Science

II. HOW SCIENCE WORKS

4. The Iron Rule of Explanation

5. Baconian Convergence

6. Explanatory Ore

7. The Drive for Objectivity

8. The Supremacy of Observation

III. WHY SCIENCE TOOK SO LONG

9. Science's Strategic Irrationality

10. The War against Beauty

11. The Advent of Science

IV. SCIENCE NOW

12. Building the Scientific Mind

13. Science and Humanism

14. Care and Maintenance of the Knowledge Machine.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [321]-329) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Scott fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9781631491375

1631491377

OCLC:

1137812867