Fact, Faith and Fiction in the Development of Science by R Hooykaas

Fact, Faith and Fiction in the Development of Science by R Hooykaas

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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780792357742
ISBN 10	0792357744
Title	Fact, Faith and Fiction in the Development of Science
Author	R Hooykaas
Series	Boston Studies In The Philosophy And History Of Science
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Springer
Year published	1999-11-30
Number of pages	462
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.