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This book presents a set of essays interpreting excerpts from the Talmud that illustrate values essential to Western science. It includes another set of essays interpreting the function of interpretation in the method of science, to associate Talmudic and post-modern concepts.
How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities—demons—to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments—experiments that can only be done in the imagination—and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology. Spanning four centuries of discovery—from René Descartes, whose demon could hijack sensorial reality, to James Clerk Maxwell, whose molecular-sized demon deftly broke the second law of thermodynamics, to Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, and beyond—Jimena Canales tells a shadow history of science and the demons that bedevil it. She reveals how the greatest scientific thinkers used demons to explore problems, test the limits of what is possible, and better understand nature. Their imaginary familiars helped unlock the secrets of entropy, heredity, relativity, quantum mechanics, and other scientific wonders—and continue to inspire breakthroughs in the realms of computer science, artificial intelligence, and economics today. The world may no longer be haunted as it once was, but the demons of the scientific imagination are alive and well, continuing to play a vital role in scientists' efforts to explore the unknown and make the impossible real.
Leopold von Ranke endeavoured to understand political order within its own historical context. To understand the nature of historical phenomena, such as an institution or an idea, one had to consider its historical development and the changes it underwent over a period of time. Historical epochs, Ranke argued, should not be judged according to predetermined contemporary values or ideas. Rather, they had to be understood on their own terms by empirically establishing history ‘as things really were.’ Ranke’s influence on History as a modern discipline is thus evident, and this is the first volume in English to chart his life and works for a hundred years.
This book is the first comprehensive collection of the letters of Johannes Brahms ever to appear in English. Over 550 are included, virtually all uncut, and there are over a dozen published here for the first time in any language. Although he corresponded throughout his life with some of the great performers, composers, musicologists, writers, scientists, and artists of the day, and although thousands of his letters have survived, English readers have until now had scant opportunity to meet Brahms in person, through his words, and in his own voice. The letters in this volume range from 1848 to just before his death. They include most of Brahm's letters to Robert Schumann, over a hundred letters to Clara Schumann, and the complete Brahms-Wagner correspondence. They are joined by a running commentary to form an absorbing narrative, documented with scholarly care, provided with comprehensive notes, but written for the general music lover--the result is a lively biography. The work is generously illustrated, and contains several detailed appendices and an index.
This book provides an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the study of the dialects of English as they are spoken around the world, from the earliest dialect dictionaries of the sixteenth century to contemporary research emerging from the field of geolinguistics. Organised into ten thematic chapters, it explores and evaluates the methods and purposes of each approach to the study of dialectal variation, with full explanations of technical terms throughout. Illuminating one of the most productive fields of interest in language study, this compelling book is essential reading for students of dialect and regional difference in English.
This volume aims to attract attention to the necessity for quality advice on science and technology issues to the president of the United States, to the Congress, and to the judiciary. It emphasizes reconsideration and improvement of existing organizations and mechanisms, mindful of the need to adapt to changing circumstances. Golden has gathered facts and opinions useful to a wide range of people: government officials and staffs in all three branches; journalists; scholars and students of political science, science policy, and the history of science policy; members of the industrial and financial communities; and the concerned citizenry. The eighty-five prominent experts include both of President Reagan's science advisors, President Gerald R. Ford, congressional leaders, and distinguished members of the judiciary.
This book offers a novel account of Aquinas's theory of the human act. It argues that Aquinas takes a human act to be a composite of two power-exercises, where one relates to the other as form to matter. The formal component is an act of the will, and the material component is a power-exercise caused by the will, which Aquinas refers to as the 'commanded act.' The book also argues that Aquinas conceptualizes the act of free choice as a hylomorphic composite: it is, materially, an act of the will, but it inherits a form from reason. As the book aims to show, the core idea of Aquinas's hylomorphic action theory is that the exercise of one power can structure the exercise of another power, and this provides a helpful way to think of the presence of cognition in conation and of intention in bodily movement.
This biography of Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) places her life and work in its social, scientific and personal context. The author examines the development of Barbara McClintock’s scientific work and her influence upon individuals and upon the fields of cytogenetics and evolutionary biology in the period from 1902 to the present. The history documents years of McClintock’s notable and lauded scientific work long before she discovered and named transposable elements in the mid-1940s for which she ultimately received the Nobel Prize. The biography employs documented evidence to expose, demystify, and provide clarity for legends and misinterpretations of McClintock’s life and work. Key Features Exposes and demystifies myths and legends told about McClintock’s time in Missouri Clarifies the changing language of genes and genetics Places in perspective the history of McClintock’s research Documents McClintock’s family and early life before college Provides documented details of McClintock’s time in Nazi Germany