| Edition |
First edition. |
| Physical Description |
x, 350 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. |
| Note |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
"A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. Michael Strevens's wholly original investigation of science asks two fundamental questions: Why is science so powerful? And why did it take so long, two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics, for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of nature? The Knowledge Machine's radical answer is that science calls on its practitioners to do something irrational: by willfully ignoring religion, theoretical beauty, and, especially, philosophy-essentially stripping away all previous knowledge-scientists embrace an unnaturally narrow method of inquiry, channeling unprecedented energy into observation and experimentation."-- Provided by publisher. |
| Contents |
Introduction: the knowledge machine -- I. THE GREAT METHOD DEBATE -- Unearthing the scientific method -- Human frailty -- The essential subjectivity of science -- II. HOW SCIENCE WORKS -- The iron rule of explanation -- Baconian convergence -- Explanatory ore -- The drive for objectivity -- The supremacy of observation -- III. WHY SCIENCE TOOK SO LONG -- Science's strategic irrationality -- The war against beauty -- The advent of science -- I V. SCIENCE NOW -- Building the scientific mind -- Science and humanism -- Care and maintenance of the knowledge machine. |
| Subject |
Science -- Methodology.
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Science -- Philosophy.
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Science -- History.
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Irrationality (Philosophy)
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Knowledge, Theory of.
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