Fact, faith and fiction in the development of science : the Gifford lectures given in the University of St Andrews 1976
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Fact, faith and fiction in the development of science : the Gifford lectures given in the University of St Andrews 1976
（Boston studies in the philosophy of science, v. 205）
Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1999
- : hbk
- Other Title
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Fact, faith and fiction
Available at / 16 libraries
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Hokkaido University, Library, Graduate School of Science, Faculty of Science and School of Science図書
: hbk509/B6572070495922
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In this posthumous book, the late Professor R. Hooykaas (1906-1994) conveys a lifetime of historical thought about modes of scientific advance over the centuries. In what variety of ways has the human mind, with all its subjectivity and its capacity for self-deception, but also its piercing gifts of discovery, managed to come to terms with `the whimsical tricks of nature'? Central to this erudite, penetrating, and widely ranging study is Hooykaas's distinction between facts (given by nature yet entirely subject to our mode of interpreting them), faith (broad conceptions like the idea of order, of simplicity, or of harmony), and fictions in the sense of those daring intellectual tools, such as theories and hypotheses and models, which reflect the scientist's creative imagination. Case studies drawn from the history of all branches of science (including chemistry and the earth sciences) and from Antiquity to the present day, serve to widen and to deepen the understanding of every reader (whether a historian of science or not) with a desire to learn more about the realities of the scientific pursuit.
Table of Contents
Editor's Foreword. Selected Bibliography of R. Hooykaas. Author's Preface. Introduction. I. On Natural Theology. II. Harmony in Nature. III. The Philosopher's Stone. IV. The Undying Fire. V. A Tunnel Through the Earth. VI. `And the Sun Stood Still'. VII. Thinking with the Hands. VIII. Physical and Mathematical Theories. IX. Works of Nature, Works of Art. X. Cleopatra's Nose. XI. The `Thinking Reed'. Notes. List of Illustrations. The Text and Editorial Actions with Regard to it. Acknowledgements. Index.
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