Download or read book The Science of Myths and Vice Versa written by Gregory Schrempp and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We often assume that science and myth stand in opposition, but the rhetoric of contemporary popular science and related genres tells a different story about what contemporary readers really want from science. This book shows how writers such as Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Pollan successfully fuse science and myth to offer compelling narratives about how we can improve our understanding of ourselves and our world.
Download or read book The Aesop s Fable Paradigm written by K. Brandon Barker and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Aesop's Fable Paradigm is a collection of essays that explore the cutting-edge intersection of Folklore and Science. From moralizing fables to fantastic folktales, humans have been telling stories about animals—animals who can talk, feel, think, and make moral judgments just as we do—for a very long time. In contrast, scientific studies of the mental lives of animals have professed to be investigating the nature of animal minds slowly, cautiously, objectively, with no room for fanciful tales, fables, or myths. But recently, these folkloric and scientific traditions have merged in an unexpected and shocking way: scientists have attempted to prove that at least some animal fables are actually true. These interdisciplinary chapters examine how science has targeted the well-known Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Pitcher" as their starting point. They explore the ever-growing set of experimental studies which purport to prove that crows possess an understanding of higher-order concepts like weight, mass, and even Archimedes' insight about the physics of water displacement. The Aesop's Fable Paradigm explores how these scientific studies are doomed to accomplish little more than to mirror anthropomorphic representations of animals in human folklore and reveal that the problem of folkloric projection extends far beyond the "Aesop's Fable Paradigm" into every nook and cranny of research on animal cognition.
Download or read book Women Science and Myth written by Sue V. Rosser and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-06-23 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia surveys the scientific research on gender throughout the ages—the people, experiments, and impact—of both legitimate and illegitimate findings on the scientific community, women scientists, and society at large. Women, Science, and Myth: Gender Beliefs from Antiquity to the Present examines the ways scientists have researched gender throughout history, the ways those results have affected society, and the impact they have had on the scientific community and on women, women scientists, and women's rights movements. In chronologically organized entries, Women, Science, and Myth explores the people and experiments that exemplify the problematic relationship between science and gender throughout the centuries, with particular emphasis on the 20th century. The encyclopedia offers a section on focused cross-period themes such as myths of gender in different scientific disciplines and the influence of cultural norms on specific eras of gender research. It is a timely and revealing resource that celebrates science's legitimate accomplishments in understanding gender while unmasking the sources of a number of debilitating biases concerning women's intelligence and physical attributes.
Download or read book The Truth of Myth written by Tok Thompson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Truth of Myth is a thorough and accessible introduction to the study of myth, surveying the intellectual history of the topic, methods for studying myth cross-culturally, and emerging trends. Readers will encounter insightful commentaries on such questions as: What is the relation of mythology to religion? To science? To popular culture? Did the events recounted in myths actually occur? Why does the term "myth" have so many contradictory definitions and connotations? Offering serious students with an intellectual "toolkit" for launching into this fascinating field, the book is especially useful in conjunction with case studies of individual mythological traditions.
Download or read book Myth A Very Short Introduction written by Robert Segal and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-07-23 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where do myths come from? What is their function and what do they mean? In this Very Short Introduction Robert Segal introduces the array of approaches used to understand the study of myth. These approaches hail from disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy, science, and religious studies. Including ideas from theorists as varied as Sigmund Freud, Claude L?vi-Strauss, Albert Camus, and Roland Barthes, Segal uses the famous ancient myth of Adonis to analyse their individual approaches and theories. In this new edition, he not only considers the future study of myth, but also considers the interactions of myth theory with cognitive science, the implications of the myth of Gaia, and the differences between story-telling and myth. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book The Mythology of Science written by R. J. Rushdoony and published by Chalcedon Foundation. This book was released on 2009-11-16 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "mythology" of science is its religious devotion to the myth of evolution. In evolution, man is the highest expression of intelligence and reason, and such thinking will not yield itself to submission to a God it views as a human cultural creation, useful, if at all, only in a cultural context. Views of origins are dependent on faith, and one's position speaks much as to one's religious tenets. Evolutionary faith, however, cannot tolerate any view of the natural world or science that places it under another faith, such as the Christian belief in a sovereign causative God. Darwin gave an ostensibly scientific justification for man's rebellion against God. He put men at the top of the evolutionary ladder, allowing them to believe they had realized Satan's lure to Adam and Eve and become "as gods, knowing [determining] good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). We can attack the science of evolution all we want, but the battle for our faith, true science, and our culture is a religious one over the nature of truth. Evolution is a religious faith that has become entrenched as a presupposition of modern thought. For Christians to argue about the "unproven" nature of the evolutionary hypothesis or the circular reasoning of its thought is of some value, but the essential issue is that two opposing religious faiths are in conflict. Evolution is popular because it is such a useful paradigm to sinful men; it dispenses with God as a prerequisite of all things. But Christianity as a religious faith depends not on proofs that are constructions of man's fallen mind, but on the reality of an almighty God who reveals Himself to us by grace. Christianity, too, depends on circular reasoning: we even begin and end with faith in God and His revelation. The purpose of this book (first published in 1967) is to define the nature of the opposing religious systems of thought, Christian creationism and Darwinism (in its various forms). It is a call to urge Christians to stand firm for Biblical six-day creationism as a fundamental aspect of their faith in the Creator.
Download or read book The Return to Cosmology written by Stephen Toulmin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Can we rely on the discoveries that scientists make about one or another part, or aspect, of the world as a basis for drawing conclusions abou the Universe as a Whole?" Thirty years ago, the separateness of different intellectual disciplines was an unquestioned axiom of intellectual procedure. By the mid-nineteen-seventies, however, even within the natural sciences proper, a shift from narrowly disciplinary preoccupations to more interdisciplinary issues had made it possible to reopen questions about he cosmological significance of the scientific world picture and scarcely possible any longer to rule out all religious cosmology and "unscientific." This book, the product of both a professional and personal quest, follow the debate about cosmology--the theory of the universe--as it has changed from 1945 to 1982. The open essay, "Scientific Mythology" reflects the influence of Stephen Toulmin's postwar study with Ludwig Wittgenstein in its skepticism about the naive extrapolation of scientific concepts into nonscientific contexts. Skepticism gradually gives way to qualified optimism that there may be "still a real chance of working outward from the natural sciences into a larger cosmological realm" in a series of essays on the cosmological speculations of individual scientists, including Arthur Koestler, Jacques Monod, Carl Sagan, and others. In the programmatic concluding essays, Toulmin argues that the classic Newtonian distinction between the observer and the observed was inimical not only to the received religious cosmology but also to any attempt to understand humanity and nature as parts of a single cosmos. In the twentieth century, however, what he calls "the death of the spectator" has forced the postmodern scientist--theoretically, in quantum physics, and practically, in the recognized impact of science-derived technologies on the environment--to include himself in his science. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.
Download or read book The Social Origins of Thought written by Johannes F.M. Schick and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-03-11 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By studying how different societies understand categories such as time and causality, the Durkheimians decentered Western epistemology. With contributions from philosophy, sociology, anthropology, media studies, and sinology, this volume illustrates the interdisciplinarity and intellectual rigor of the “category project” which did not only stir controversies among contemporary scholars but paved the way for other theories exploring how the thoughts of individuals are prefigured by society and vice versa.
Download or read book The Scientific Monthly written by James McKeen Cattell and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Economics of Good and Evil written by Tomas Sedlacek and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tomas Sedlacek has shaken the study of economics as few ever have. Named one of the "Young Guns" and one of the "five hot minds in economics" by the Yale Economic Review, he serves on the National Economic Council in Prague, where his provocative writing has achieved bestseller status. How has he done it? By arguing a simple, almost heretical proposition: economics is ultimately about good and evil. In The Economics of Good and Evil, Sedlacek radically rethinks his field, challenging our assumptions about the world. Economics is touted as a science, a value-free mathematical inquiry, he writes, but it's actually a cultural phenomenon, a product of our civilization. It began within philosophy--Adam Smith himself not only wrote The Wealth of Nations, but also The Theory of Moral Sentiments--and economics, as Sedlacek shows, is woven out of history, myth, religion, and ethics. "Even the most sophisticated mathematical model," Sedlacek writes, "is, de facto, a story, a parable, our effort to (rationally) grasp the world around us." Economics not only describes the world, but establishes normative standards, identifying ideal conditions. Science, he claims, is a system of beliefs to which we are committed. To grasp the beliefs underlying economics, he breaks out of the field's confines with a tour de force exploration of economic thinking, broadly defined, over the millennia. He ranges from the epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to the emergence of Christianity, from Descartes and Adam Smith to the consumerism in Fight Club. Throughout, he asks searching meta-economic questions: What is the meaning and the point of economics? Can we do ethically all that we can do technically? Does it pay to be good? Placing the wisdom of philosophers and poets over strict mathematical models of human behavior, Sedlacek's groundbreaking work promises to change the way we calculate economic value.
Download or read book Approaches to Greek Myth written by Lowell Edmunds and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Segal, on psychoanalytic interpretations.
Download or read book Myth and Science written by Tito Vignoli and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn the fascinating interplay between myth and science in this thought-provoking book. The book delves into the intrinsic law of our faculties of apprehension through exploring the origins and sources of myth, as well as the sensation and perception of animals and humans. With a focus on the historical evolution of myth and science, the book also addresses the intriguing topics of dreams, illusions, and hallucinations, including abnormal experiences such as delirium and madness. This book is a must-read for those curious about the complex relationship between ancient mythologies and modern scientific understanding, and how the two have shaped our perception of the world around us.
Download or read book The Shaman s Doorway written by Stephen Larsen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998-03-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Shaman’s Doorway is one of the most significant and inspiring works on the relationship of shamanism to both the psyche and society. Drawing on his experience as a psychotherapist and his understanding of primordial shamanic traditions, Stephen Larsen shows the relevance of this path to the modern world and how it can lead to a creative and affirmative relationship with life. “Life dismembers us,” Larsen says, and a new grasp of these ancient techniques for altering consciousness is required to escape from the alienation and confusion caused by our demythologized and industrialized environment. Defining the task of the shaman as one of bringing meaning and healing into life, Larsen clearly shows how the shaman, all too often perceived as belonging to the world’s past, holds the key to our future.
Download or read book The Folktale written by Stith Thompson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1977 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As interest in folklore increases, the folktale acquires greater significance for students and teachers of literature. The material is massive and scattered; thus, few students or teachers have accessibility to other than small segments or singular tales or material they find buried in archives. Stith Thompson has divided his book into four sections which permit both the novice and the teacher to examine oral tradition and its manifestation in folklore. The introductory section discusses the nature and forms of the folktale. A comprehensive second part traces the folktale geographically from Ireland to India, giving culturally diverse examples of the forms presented in the first part. The examples are followed by the analysis of several themes in such tales from North American Indian cultures. The concluding section treats theories of the folktale, the collection and classification of folk narrative, and then analyzes the living folklore process. This work will appeal to students of the sociology of literature, professors of comparative literature, and general readers interested in folklore.
Download or read book The Science Gap written by Milton A. Rothman and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines sixteen standard myths about the nature of science, demonstrating that much of what passes for logical argumentation consists of the repetition of cliches and current folklore.
Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion written by Nickolas P. Roubekas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-03-10 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore a rigorous but accessible guide to contemporary approaches to the study of religion from leading voices in the field The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion delivers an expert and insightful analysis of modern perspectives on the study of religion across the humanities and the social sciences. Presupposing no knowledge of the approaches examined in the collection, the book is ideal for undergraduate students who have yet to undertake extensive study in the humanities or social sciences. The book includes perspectives from those in fields as diverse as globalization, cognitive science, the study of emotion, law, esotericism, sex and gender, functionalism, terror, the comparative method, modernism, and postmodernism. Many of the topics covered in the book clearly hail from religious studies, while others are grounded in other areas of academia. All of the chapters contained within are written by recognized authors who show how their chosen discipline contributes to the understanding of the phenomenon of religion. This book also includes topics like: A comprehensive exploration of multiple approaches to religious study, including anthropology, economics, literature, phenomenology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology A review of various topics germane to the study of religion, including the study of the body, cognitive science, the comparative method, death and the afterlife, law, magic, music, and myth A selection of subjects touching on modern trends in extremism and violence, including chapters on terror and violence, fundamentalism, and nationalism A discussion of the influence of modernism and postmodernism in religion Ideal for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students in humanities and social science programs taking courses on religion and myth, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion will also earn a place in the libraries of specialists working in the fields of Religious Studies, Theology, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Political Science, History, and Philosophy.
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion written by John R. Hinnells and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion is a major resource for everyone taking courses in religious studies. It begins by explaining the most important methodological approaches to religion - including psychology, philosophy, anthropology and comparative study - before moving on to explore a wide variety of critical issues, such as gender, science, fundamentalism, ritual, and new religious movements. Written by renowned international specialists, and using clear and accessible language throughout, it is an excellent guide to the problems and questions found in exams and on courses. * Surveys the history of religious studies and the key disciplinary approaches * Highlights contemporary issues such as globalization, diaspora and politics * Explains why the study of religion is relevant in today's world * A valuable resource for courses at all levels
