Download or read book The Unknown as an Engine for Science written by Hans J. Pirner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-05-28 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the limits of our knowledge. The author shows how uncertainty and indefiniteness not only define the borders confining our understanding, but how they feed into the process of discovery and help to push back these borders. Starting with physics the author collects examples from economics, neurophysiology, history, ecology and philosophy. The first part shows how information helps to reduce indefiniteness. Understanding rests on our ability to find the right context, in which we localize a problem as a point in a network of connections. New elements must be combined with the old parts of the existing complex knowledge system, in order to profit maximally from the information. An attempt is made to quantify the value of information by its ability to reduce indefiniteness. The second part explains how to handle indefiniteness with methods from fuzzy logic, decision theory, hermeneutics and semiotics. It is not sufficient that the new element appears in an experiment, one also has to find a theoretical reason for its existence. Indefiniteness becomes an engine of science, which gives rise to new ideas.
Download or read book Ignorance written by Stuart Firestein and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to the popular view of science as a mountainous accumulation of facts and data, Stuart Firestein takes the novel perspective that ignorance is the main product and driving force of science, and that this is the best way to understand the process of scientific discovery.
Download or read book The Beginning of Infinity written by David Deutsch and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman
Download or read book Philosophical Logical and Scientific Perspectives in Engineering written by Zekâi Şen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-09-14 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights and explains the significance of philosophical, logical, and scientific principles for engineering education/training and engineering works. In so doing, it aims to help to rectify the neglect of philosophy and logic in current education and training programs, which emphasize analytical and numerical methods at the expense of the innovative practical and creative abilities so important for engineering in the past. Individual chapters examine the relation of philosophy, logic, and science to engineering, drawing attention to, for example, the significance of ethics, the relevance of the philosophy of science, and the increasing importance of application of fuzzy logic to engineering. Modeling principles and philosophy in engineering are discussed, and the impact of different education systems, examined. Too often engineers have become reliant on readily available formulations and software; this book offers an antidote, promoting the recognition of artistic and humanitarian aspects and their integration in engineering works.
Download or read book The Scientific Monthly written by James McKeen Cattell and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Exploring the Unknown written by John M. Logsdon and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Van Nostrand s Scientific Encyclopedia written by Douglas M. Considine and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 3529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advancements in science and engineering have occurred at a surprisingly rapid pace since the release of the seventh edition of this encyclopedia. Large portions of the reference have required comprehensive rewriting and new illustrations. Scores of new topics have been included to create this thoroughly updated eighth edition. The appearance of this new edition in 1994 marks the continuation of a tradition commenced well over a half-century ago in 1938 Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, First Edition, was published and welcomed by educators worldwide at a time when what we know today as modern science was just getting underway. The early encyclopedia was well received by students and educators alike during a critical time span when science became established as a major factor in shaping the progress and economy of individual nations and at the global level. A vital need existed for a permanent science reference that could be updated periodically and made conveniently available to audiences that numbered in the millions. The pioneering VNSE met these criteria and continues today as a reliable technical information source for making private and public decisions that present a backdrop of technical alternatives.
Download or read book The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions written by and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 1096 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pharmaceutical Journal written by and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 1094 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book English Mechanic and Mirror of Science written by and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 872 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Unknown as an Engine for Science written by Hans J. Pirner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the limits of our knowledge. The author shows how uncertainty and indefiniteness not only define the borders confining our understanding, but how they feed into the process of discovery and help to push back these borders. Starting with physics the author collects examples from economics, neurophysiology, history, ecology and philosophy. The first part shows how information helps to reduce indefiniteness. Understanding rests on our ability to find the right context, in which we localize a problem as a point in a network of connections. New elements must be combined with the old parts of the existing complex knowledge system, in order to profit maximally from the information. An attempt is made to quantify the value of information by its ability to reduce indefiniteness. The second part explains how to handle indefiniteness with methods from fuzzy logic, decision theory, hermeneutics and semiotics. It is not sufficient that the new element appears in an experiment, one also has to find a theoretical reason for its existence. Indefiniteness becomes an engine of science, which gives rise to new ideas.
Download or read book The Scientific and Literary Treasury written by Samuel Maunder and published by . This book was released on 1866 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Einstein Popper and the Crisis of theoretical Physics written by Christoph von Mettenheim and published by tredition. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EINSTEIN, POPPER AND THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND MATTER discusses under philosophical, logical and mathematical aspects the theory of light and the problem of explaining gravitation, one of the oldest problems of philosophy and physics. Assuming the cause of gravity to lie in a force of attraction without a material agent would violate fundamental principles of physics. Newton saw that, and he knew that his theory left gravity well described but unexplained. Michael Faraday also saw the problem but could not solve it. Both relied on the ether hypothesis, which was given up at the beginning of the 20th Century in favour of Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity. Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity, however, rested on serious logical and mathematical mistakes. Max Planck gave no reasons for the individibility of the quantum, and his quantum jump assumed velocity without taking time. Einstein based his theory on a mathematical self-contradiction that remained undiscovered in a whole century. Both theories must be abandoned. In that difficult situation applying Karl Popper ́s theory of science leads to a revival of the ether hypothesis in a different shape. If matter is not distinct from ether but is itself a process composed of ether particles, then their elasticity will explain the phenomena of light, of gravity, of the stability of matter, of the vortex shape of galaxies, and several other phenomena as well.
Download or read book Scientific American written by and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book English Mechanic and World of Science written by and published by . This book was released on 1870 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Air Force Scientific Research Bibliography 1950 56 written by Library of Congress. Science and Technology Division and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 1196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Age of Scientific Naturalism written by Michael S Reidy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume focus on the way Victorian Physicist John Tyndall and his correspondents developed their ideas through letters, periodicals and journals and challenge assumptions about who gained authority, and how they attained and defended their position within the scientific community.
