DOCSLIB.ORG

“The End of Science”: Can We Overcome Cognitive Limitations?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“The End of Science”: Can We Overcome Cognitive Limitations? Alexander Riegler “The End of Science”: Can We Overcome Cognitive Limitations? VOLUTIONARY EPISTE- Abstract be true for any model, in- E mology has brought cluding narrative and forth the idea of science mathematical models. “Why is the universe knowable?” DAVIES (1990) as an evolutionary sys- wonders. In this paper, I argue that science is not a The success of models is tem (cf. CAMPBELL 1974, matter of knowing any universe. Rather, it is a—as their predicative power. I OESER 1984, RIEDL 1983). history has shown—superior method of guidelines of conclude that due to cog- From systems theory of how to organize experiences yielding predictive power. nitive limits of human sci- evolution (RIEDL 1977) Historically, two types of models have given rise to the entists, model-building is and the theory of punc- effectiveness of science, narrative and mathematical also subject to limitations. tuated equilibrium models. Based on cognitive psychological investiga- By using computational (GOULD/ELDREDGE 1977) tions, I point out that due to the human nature of sci- devices, those limitations we know that evolution entific reasoning both types of models are limited. might be transcended. does not proceed homo- With the advent of computational devices scientific geneously. Rather, peri- investigation may now be extended to “externalized Different ods of stasis are inter- deductions”, which are not subject to a limited short- rupted by dramatic term memory and slow performance. To shift this to perspectives on changes. Over the last computational science we have to recognize that mod- scientific activity few centuries we have els in all three approaches have basically the same Ralph GOMORY (1995) experienced science as a function. Although this might not solve the realist’s argues that the choice of dynamic enterprise with question of how models relate to the world (at a deep appropriate perspectives is several revolutions. Will philosophical sense), it will guarantee the continued significant if we want to we now face the stasis of existence of contemporary science beyond the cogni- make the unknown visible: science? These argu- tive barrier. “[I]n distinguishing the ments are not purely the- Key words known or the unknown oretical: In a recent from the unknowable, the book, John HORGAN ex- Philosophy of science, cognition, complexity, models, level of detail can be deci- plicitly speaks of “The reality, constructivism, problem solving, artifacts. sive” (p88). End of Science” (1996). This is also true if we In this paper, I outline the mechanisms of the “evo- look at philosophy of science: to find the “proper” lution of science” by first finding an appropriate explanation which both explains success and failure perspective on the philosophy of science. Then, af- of science. Unlike many other papers on the present ter a short review (and rejection) of HORGAN’s thesis, topic (e.g., LAUDAN 1977, STENT 1978, VAN FRAASSEN I identify three core problems to science. These 1980, NERSESSIAN 1987, FAUST 1984, GIERE 1993), I problems, which are mainly motivated by cognitive will not focus on yet another philosophical treat- psychology, have become serious since science ment. Rather, I will deal with the subject of science started to deal with complexity. Computer models in a pragmatic way which aims at the success of pre- have been proposed to cope with this latest frontier dictions. The following list locates this position of science. However, such models have not received among all possible views on the philosophy of sci- acceptance among the scientific community due to ence. Furthermore, the list summarizes what we po- the presumingly arbitrary relationship between tentially can expect from a philosophy of mind. For computational model and “the reality out there” the rest of the paper, I will, triggered by recent dis- (the reminiscence syndrome). I argue that this must cussions about the end of science, outline why we Evolution and Cognition ❘ 37 ❘ 1998, Vol. 4, No. 1 Alexander Riegler should concern ourselves with a possible limitation The last two items especially may yield the expecta- to science at all and what a possible solution might tion that in future, when the content of scientific look like.1 theories will have transcended the limitation of the We must clearly outline what a philosophy of sci- human mind, computers (or other artifacts) may ence should do for us: take over the business of exploring Nature. 1. Is it a pure philosophical exercise where argu- What can such computers “learn” from human ments of various authors are compared, thus scientific activities, and what does “Nature” refer to? building a discourse which does not necessarily Are there limits to science carried out by humans? If “ground” (HARNAD 1990) in the subject (i.e., sci- we don’t face any such limits, we barely need any entific activity)? However, the ultimate goal of artificial extensions. Too much “pleasure” is in- any scientific inquiry is not to be an end in itself. volved in the process of generating scientific knowl- Rather, it has a constructive character in that it edge. But, as with transportation, walking also may allows us to extend the set of actions which we use provide much pleasure, nevertheless society would in order to predict and perceive our world in an not be able to survive without motorized means of increasingly better way. transportation. This is a good demonstration of hu- 2. Is it descriptive in order to explain what has hap- man nature: Although we have been using motor- pened to date? Any description may be based on based vehicles for many decades, we still, and in fact sociological models (cf. KUHN 1962), on a psycho- more than ever, enjoy our biological movement, not logical approach (cf. GIERE 1993), or even on a to mention that our health depends on it. To draw computational philosophy of science (cf. an analogy, in the future scientific reasoning might THAGARD 1988). be done by machines, nevertheless we will still enjoy 3. Is it a normative instrument which tells scientists the intellectual challenge by tackling problems how to do science, such as the research method- which we can grasp with our (narrow) mind. In the ology of the logical positivists (SCHILPP 1963) or following chapter, I will present these restrictions in Karl POPPER’s rejection of induction (1934)? more detail, starting from the positivist’s fear that 4. Is it generative in that it is capable of predicting the big parts of the scientific pie have already been what the future of science will be? Can we expect eaten, leaving only crumbs for contemporary (and that the principal limits of science can be specified future) scientists. analogously to GÖDEL’s Incompleteness Theorem, which poses limits on formal systems (e.g., CASTI The end of science? 1996a)? Following an entirely positivist view on science, can we even expect the end of science I was recently reminded of the possibility that sci- since “all great revolutions are already behind us” ence might come to an end by the provocative book as proposed by the recent The End of Science book of John HORGAN (1996) with the self-explaining title by John HORGAN (1996)? The End of Science. “The great scientists want, above 5. Or will it provide insights and mechanisms all, to discover truth about nature”, John HORGAN which—in the long run—can be automatized wrote in his 1996 book. And since “researchers and therefore passed over to artificial artifacts already mapped out physical reality”, all that is left which then will carry out scientific reasoning? is to fill in details2. To be more concrete, “all” refers Such proposals have been around for many de- to good science, which is capable of producing “sur- cades already, cf. the General Problem Solver of prises”, i.e., scientific revolutions as has been intro- NEWELL and SIMON (1972) and BACON of LAN- duced by DARWIN, EINSTEIN and WATSON & CRICK. GLEY et al. (1987) More pragmatically, one may However, “all” neither refers to the (boring?) scien- think of the usage of computers in mathematics tific activities of filling in all the gaps within the as the first sign of this development. For exam- map mentioned above, nor to applied science. And ple, the famed four-color conjecture (APPEL/HAK- it does not refer to what HORGAN calls “ironic sci- EN 1977), which demonstrated that problems ence”, those efforts of physicists and chaos-com- may no longer be tackled by traditional, human- plexity-researchers (“chaoplexologists” in HORGAN’s based methods. It made use of the power of hun- terminology, p192) which argue for the existence of dreds of hours of computation on supercomput- high dimensional superstrings and life inside com- ers in order to calculate individual cases rather puters. than to prove the problem in a traditional math- HORGAN dissociate himself from any relativist ematical way. view on science brought forth to a large audience by Evolution and Cognition ❘ 38 ❘ 1998, Vol. 4, No. 1 “The End of Science”: Can We Overcome Cognitive Limitations? Thomas KUHN (1962) in the early 60s3. He therefore Certainly, no theory can ever reach the status of cannot help but think that all present scientific universal applicability. This is also true for any the- knowledge is the complete framework to describe ory that wants to explain the dynamics of scientific and cope with reality. Taking a KUHNIAN perspective activity. Rather, it seems useful to explain science to into account, he might rather—possibly correctly— an extent which will allow us to formalize its key speak of an end of the current paradigm.4 Indeed, as mechanisms and to transfer it to artifacts. Melanie MITCHELL (1995) in her response to HOR- GAN’s previously published paper “From Complexity What could the problems be? to Perplexity” (1995, p1) pointed out, that “[t]he specter of the “end of science” periodically appears The problems which may cause a decay of progress in the scientific and popular literature, often at the in human science are rooted in its members: the end of one scientific era (e.g., NEWTONIAN mechan- human scientists and their cognitive apparatus.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From Developmental Constraint to Evolvability
    From Developmental Constraint to Evolvability How Concepts Figure in Explanation and Disciplinary Identity Ingo Brigandt Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta 2-40 Assiniboia Hall, Edmonton, AB T6G2E7, Canada [email protected] Abstract The concept of developmental constraint was at the heart of develop- mental approaches to evolution of the 1980s. While this idea was widely used to criticize neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, critique does not yield an alternative framework that offers evolutionary explanations. In current Evo-devo the concept of constraint is of minor importance, whereas notions as evolvability are at the center of attention. The latter clearly defines an explanatory agenda for evolution- ary research, so that one could view the historical shift from ‘developmental con- straint’ towards ‘evolvability’ as the move from a concept that is a mere tool of criticism to a concept that establishes a positive explanatory project. However, by taking a look at how the concept of constraint was employed in the 1980s, I argue that developmental constraint was not just seen as restricting possibilities (‘con- straining’), but also as facilitating morphological change in several ways. Ac- counting for macroevolutionary transformation and the origin of novel form was an aim of these developmental approaches to evolution. Thus, the concept of de- velopmental constraint was part of a positive explanatory agenda long before the advent of Evo-devo as a genuine scientific discipline. In the 1980s, despite the lack of a clear disciplinary identity, this concept coordinated research among pale- ontologists, morphologists, and developmentally inclined evolutionary biologists. I discuss the different functions that scientific concepts can have, highlighting that instead of classifying or explaining natural phenomena, concepts such as ‘devel- opmental constraint’ and ‘evolvability’ are more important in setting explanatory agendas so as to provide intellectual coherence to scientific approaches.
    [Show full text]
  • Spontaneous Generation of Life Is the Inevitable Outcome of Time, Chance, and the Right Chemical Conditions
    “The origin of life appears almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to be satisfied to get it going.” –Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix structure1 Introduction According to evolutionary theory, all life – bacteria, plants, and people – evolved from a hypothetical first cell, which allegedly arose spontaneously from chemical substrates. This is said to have happened over 3 billion years ago. That hypothetical first cell has been called LUCA (last universal common ancestor). This first cell is assumed to be at the very base of Darwin’s hypothetical “tree of life”. It is almost universally claimed that life came from non-life (abiogenesis). Is this good science? It is almost universally claimed that spontaneous generation of life is the inevitable outcome of time, chance, and the right chemical conditions. Is this claim even remotely credible? School curricula, textbooks, educational science programs, and countless museums consistently insist there is a strong scientific case for the spontaneous origin of life. From a naturalistic evolutionary perspective, it should not be surprising that spontaneous generation is assumed to be feasible, as it is essential to the evolutionary story. We can’t have Darwin’s “tree of life” without the trunk, which emerged from the primordial seed of that first cell. We are continuously told stories that sound like plausible scenarios for how simple inorganic molecules might have come together to give rise to the first living cell. However, upon careful examination, we find that the stories being told are not only extremely speculative – they are rationally indefensible.
    [Show full text]
  • Activities of The
    activities of the Inhalt Contents Seite Page 2 1 Jahresrückblick und Struktur des KLI Review 2010 and Structure of the KLI 6 2 Projekte Projects 2.1 Bewerbungen / Applications 2.2 Junior Gastwissenschaftler / Junior Visiting Fellows 2.3 Postdoktoranden-Stipendien / Postdoctoral Fellowships 2.4 Senior Stipendiaten / Senior Fellows 2.5 Austausch-Stipendium / Exchange Felllowship 2.6 Gastwissenschaftler / Visiting Scientists 32 3 Wissenschaftliche Veranstaltungen Meetings and Lectures 3.1 Altenberg Workshops 3.2 Symposia 3.3 Rupert Riedl Lecture 3.4 Mittagsdiskussionen / Brown Bag Discussions 50 4 Publikationen Publications 4.1 Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology 4.2 Sammelbände und Bücher / Edited Volumes and Books 4.3 Fachartikel / Professional Papers 4.4 Artikel im Druck / Papers in Press 4.5 Zeitschrift Biological Theory / Journal 4.6 Vorträge und Kongressbeiträge / Scientific Presentations 70 5 Weitere Aktivitäten Further Activities 5.1 EASPLS Graduate Meeting 5.2 Zusätzliche Förderungen Jahresrückblick und Struktur des KLI Review 2010 and Structure of the KLI 61 Through its in-house activities and freshly conceived workshops and seminar series the KLI has uniquely provided a context for rethinking major questions in developmental, cognitive, and evolutionary biology. Stuart Newman, New York Medical College Jahresrückblick und Struktur des KLI Review 2010 and Structure of the KLI 1.1 Jahresrückblick 2010 The Year in Review Der weltweit zu beobachtende Wandel der akademischen Institutionen hat in 3 den letzten Jahren auch Österreich voll erfasst. Das Gespenst der „Nützlichkeit“ geht um. Teils erzwungen, teils in vorauseilendem bürokratischen Eifer bemessen die Universitäten ihre eigenen Leistungen immer mehr nach ökonomistischen Managementkriterien. Die eigentlichen Aufgaben der akademischen Einrichtun- gen – Erkennen, Verstehen, Analyse, Wissen, Kritik, Diskurs, Bildung – die funda- mental auf intellektueller Unabhängigkeit beruhen, werden unter dem Gewicht sogenannter Effizienzkriterien zunehmend zurückgedrängt.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolution & Development
    DOI: 10.1111/ede.12315 RESEARCH Developmental structuring of phenotypic variation: A case study with a cellular automata model of ontogeny Wim Hordijk1 | Lee Altenberg2 1Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Abstract Austria Developmental mechanisms not only produce an organismal phenotype, but 2University of Hawai‘iatMānoa, they also structure the way genetic variation maps to phenotypic variation. ‘ Honolulu, Hawai i Here, we revisit a computational model for the evolution of ontogeny based on Correspondence cellular automata, in which evolution regularly discovered two alternative Wim Hordijk, Konrad Lorenz Institute for mechanisms for achieving a selected phenotype, one showing high modularity, Evolution and Cognition Research, the other showing morphological integration. We measure a primary variational Martinstrasse 12, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria. property of the systems, their distribution of fitness effects of mutation. We find Email: [email protected] that the modular ontogeny shows the evolution of mutational robustness and ontogenic simplification, while the integrated ontogeny does not. We discuss the wider use of this methodology on other computational models of development as well as real organisms. 1 | INTRODUCTION summarize, “almost anything can be changed if it shows phenotypic variation” and “combinations of traits, even The idea that phenotypic variation could ever be those unfavorably correlated, can be changed”). Once the “unbiased” is a historical artifact coming from two main premises of this “pan‐variationism” are accepted, pans- sources: First were the early characterizations of quanti- electionism is the natural conclusion—in other words, if tative genetic variation for single traits or small numbers variation is diffusing in every phenotypic direction, the of traits.
    [Show full text]
  • Against Biopoetics
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2004 Against biopoetics: on the use and misuse of the concept of evolution in contemporary literary theory Bradley Bankston Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bankston, Bradley, "Against biopoetics: on the use and misuse of the concept of evolution in contemporary literary theory" (2004). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1703. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1703 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. AGAINST BIOPOETICS: ON THE USE AND MISUSE OF THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION IN CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English By Bradley Bankston B.A., New College, 1990 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1999 May 2004 Table of Contents Abstract................................................iii Introduction..............................................1 Part I: Evolutionary Psychology
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionary Morphology, Innovation, and the Synthesis of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology
    Biology and Philosophy 18: 309–345, 2003. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Evolutionary Morphology, Innovation, and the Synthesis of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology ALAN C. LOVE Department of History and Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh CL 1017 Pittsburgh, PA 15260 U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. One foundational question in contemporary biology is how to ‘rejoin’ evolution and development. The emerging research program (evolutionary developmental biology or ‘evo- devo’) requires a meshing of disciplines, concepts, and explanations that have been developed largely in independence over the past century. In the attempt to comprehend the present separation between evolution and development much attention has been paid to the split between genetics and embryology in the early part of the 20th century with its codification in the exclusion of embryology from the Modern Synthesis. This encourages a characterization of evolutionary developmental biology as the marriage of evolutionary theory and embryology via developmental genetics. But there remains a largely untold story about the significance of morphology and comparative anatomy (also minimized in the Modern Synthesis). Functional and evolutionary morphology are critical for understanding the development of a concept central to evolutionary developmental biology, evolutionary innovation. Highlighting the discipline of morphology and the concepts of innovation and novelty provides an alternative way of conceptualizing the ‘evo’ and the ‘devo’ to be synthesized. Key words: comparative anatomy, developmental genetics, embryology, evolutionary developmental biology, innovation, morphology, novelty, synthesis, typology 1. Introduction and methodology ... problems concerned with the orderly development of the individual are unrelated to those of the evolution of organisms through time ..
    [Show full text]
  • Macroevolutionary Freezing and the Janusian Nature of Evolvability: Is the Evolution (Of Profound Biological Novelty) Going to End?
    Biosemiotics https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-018-9326-y ORIGINAL PAPER Macroevolutionary Freezing and the Janusian Nature of Evolvability: Is the Evolution (of Profound Biological Novelty) Going to End? Jan Toman1 & Jaroslav Flegr1 Received: 30 September 2017 /Accepted: 9 May 2018 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract In a macroevolutionary timescale, evolvability itself evolves. Lineages are sorted based on their ability to generate adaptive novelties, which leads to the optimi- zation of their genotype-phenotype map. The system of translation of genetic or epigenetic changes to the phenotype may reach significant horizontal and vertical complexity, and may even exhibit certain aspects of learning behaviour. This continu- ously evolving semiotic system probably enables the origin of complex yet functional and internally compatible adaptations. However, it also has a second, Bdarker^,side.As was pointed out by several authors, the same process gradually reduces the probability of the origination of significant evolutionary novelties. In a similar way to the evolution of societies, teachings, or languages, in which the growing number of internal linkages gradually solidifies their overall structure and the structure or interpretation of their constitutive elements, the evolutionary potential of lineages decreases during biological evolution. Possible adaptations become limited to small Bperipheral^ modifications. According to the Frozen Evolution theory, some of the proximate causes of this Bmacroevolutionary freezing^ are more pronounced or present exclusively in sexual lineages. Sorting based on the highest (remaining) evolvability probably leads to the establishment of certain structural features of complex organisms, e.g. the modular character of their development and morphology.
    [Show full text]
  • Meyer, Stephen C
    DNA BY DESIGN: AN INFERENCE TO THE BEST EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION STEPHEN C. MEYER INTRODUCTION n the second chapter of Philosophy and Biology,Elliott Sober warns historians I and philosophers of biology against the danger of anachronism. In particular, he notes that many contemporary evolutionary biologists regard the design hypothe- sis as inherently untestable and, therefore, unscientific in principle, simply because it no longer commands scientific assent. He notes that while logically unbeatable versions of the design hypothesis have been formulated (involving, for example, a “trickster God” who creates a world that appears undesigned), design hypotheses in general need not assume an untestable character. A design hypothesis could, he argues, be formulated as a fully scientific “inference to the best explanation.” He notes that scientists often evaluate the explanatory power of a “hypothesis by test- ing it against one or more competing hypotheses.”1 On these grounds, he notes that William Paley’s version of the design hypothesis was manifestly testable, but was rejected precisely because it could not explain the relevant evidence of then con- temporary biology as well as the fully naturalistic theory of Charles Darwin. Sober then casts his lot with the neo-Darwinian explanation on evidential rather than methodological grounds. But the possibility remains, he argues, that there is some other version of the design hypothesis that both disagrees with the hypothesis of evolution and also is a more likely explanation of what we observe. No one, to my knowledge, has developed such a version of the design hypothesis. But this does not mean that no one ever will.2 This paper will develop a design hypothesis, not as an explanation for the origin of species, but as an explanation for the origin of the information required to make a living system in the first place.
    [Show full text]
  • Against Biopoetics: on the Use and Misuse of the Concept of Evolution in Contemporary Literary Theory
    AGAINST BIOPOETICS: ON THE USE AND MISUSE OF THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION IN CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English By Bradley Bankston B.A., New College, 1990 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1999 May 2004 Table of Contents Abstract................................................iii Introduction..............................................1 Part I: Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Theory......11 The Model...........................................11 The Critique........................................25 Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Theme..........56 Evolutionary Psychology and Literary Form...........77 Part 2: Evolutionary Progress and Literary Theory.......114 Biological Progress................................114 Complexity.........................................130 Self-Organization..................................149 Frederick Turner: Beauty and Evolution.............154 Alexander Argyros: Self-Organization, Complexity, and Literary Theory................................179 Conclusion..............................................215 Works Cited.............................................219 Vita....................................................230 ii Abstract This dissertation is a critical assessment of “biopoetics”: a new literary theory that attempts to import ideas from evolutionary science
    [Show full text]
  • Canalization and Robustness - Evolutionary Biology - Oxford Bibliog
    Canalization and Robustness - Evolutionary Biology - Oxford Bibliog... http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-978019994... Canalization and Robustness Thomas Flatt, Günter Wagner LAST MODIFIED: 27 JUNE 2018 DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199941728-0109 Introduction Canalization describes the phenomenon whereby particular genotypes exhibit reduced phenotypic sensitivity or variation (i.e., increased robustness) in response to mutations and/or to environmental changes relative to other genotypes. Canalization is a variational property of genotypes: it implies a reduced potential or propensity of the phenotype, produced by this genotype, to vary in response to genetic or environmental change. The terms “canalization,” “robustness” and “buffering” are typically used interchangeably; today, “robustness” is perhaps more commonly used than “canalization.” The concept of canalization was first introduced by Conrad Hal Waddington in the 1940s; around the same time, Ivan Ivanovich Schmalhausen came up with essentially the same concept (see Books and Early History of the Canalization Concept). Their main conjecture was the existence of a special kind of stabilizing selection, so-called canalizing selection, which favors genotypes that deviate least from the trait optimum (e.g., the fitness optimum), by selecting for genetic mechanisms that suppress phenotypic variation caused by mutations (genetic canalization) or by environmental perturbations or changes (environmental canalization). The concept of canalization is closely related to the phenomenon of genetic assimilation, that is, the idea that previously hidden, cryptic genetic variants can become phenotypically expressed following an environmental or genetic perturbation and increase in frequency by selection. General Overviews Early experimental evidence for the existence of canalization and genetic assimilation is reviewed in depth by Scharloo 1991, the first comprehensive review paper in the field.
    [Show full text]
  • Evo Devo.Pdf
    FROM EMBRYOLOGY TO EVO-DEVO Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology George Smith, general editor Jed Z. Buchwald and I. Bernard Cohen, editors, Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy Jed Z. Buchwald and Andrew Warwick, editors, Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics Geoffrey Cantor and Sally Shuttleworth, editors, Science Serialized: Representations of the Sciences in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals Michael Friedman and Alfred Nordmann, editors, The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth-Century Science Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi, editors, Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe J. P. Hogendijk and A. I. Sabra, editors, The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives Frederic L. Holmes and Trevor H. Levere, editors, Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes, editors, Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After Manfred D. Laubichler and Jane Maienschein, editors, From Embryology to Evo-Devo: A History of Developmental Evolution Brett D. Steele and Tamera Dorland, editors, The Heirs of Archimedes: Science and the Art of War Through the Age of Enlightenment N. L. Swerdlow, editor, Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination FROM EMBRYOLOGY TO EVO-DEVO: A HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION edited by Manfred D. Laubichler and Jane Maienschein The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Science and Religion: a Philosophical Analysis Course Number: Phi 81.1
    Science and Religion: A Philosophical Analysis Course Number: Phi 81.1 Institution: St. John's University Instructor: Marie George Course Outline and Reading List (subject to revision): I. INTRODUCTION -Students will be asked to write out their views on the relation of religion and science. -Instructor will present various positions taken by scientists. Readings: Einstein, "About Religion" Aristotle on the Virtue of Religion Suggested reading: Cosmos, Bios, Theos. II. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND ITS SCOPE: AN OVERVIEW A. General considerations regarding method Readings: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics 1098a28-b5, 1094b24; De Caelo 306a; Physics 193b33; Parts of Animals, Bk. I, c. 1; Metaphysics, Bk. II, c. 3. B. The scientific method as developed and used in Physics (the hypothetical deductive method) 1. the scientific observation 2. laws; statistical laws 3. hypotheses and theories Readings: 3 handouts C. The scientific method and biology Reading: Handout Suggested reading: Arthur Peacocke, God and the New Biology, cc. 1-4. D. Science, Natural Philosophy, and Metaphysics: a comparison of method and objects of study Readings: Handout Excerpts from Aquinas’s commentary on Boethius De Trinitate, qq. 5 & 6. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 993b10. E. Science and Theology: Readings: Summa Theologiae, I.1, articles 2, 7, 8. (Theology as science) Augustine (as quoted in Leo XIII, “Providentissimus Deus,” 23-25 and Pius XII, “Divino Afflante Spiritu”, 7). Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, 70.1 ad 3; Summa Contra Gentiles, Bk. II, art. 4. John Paul II, “Letter of 1988 to Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory”. (excerpts) John Paul II, “Address to the Pontifical Academy of Science,” 10-31-92.
    [Show full text]