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Nature's Imagination: The Frontiers of Scientific Vision
A person is not explainable in molecular, field-theoretical, or physiological terms alone. With that declaration, Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman goes straight to the heart of Nature's Imagination, a vibrant and important collection of essays by some of the world's foremost scientists. Ever
since the Enlightenment, the authors write, science has pursued reductionism: the idea that the whole can be understood by examining and explaining each of its parts. But as this book shows, scientists in every discipline are reaching for a new paradigm that accounts for the whole--from the
individual person to the universe itself.
Nature's Imagination gathers together the work of thirteen leading mathematicians, astronomers, neuroscientists, and philosophers, as they discuss the revolution sweeping the sciences. Here Roger Penrose, Oliver Sacks, John Barrow, Gregory Chaitin, Maragret Boden, and others explore how and why
classic reductionism is falling by the wayside in their own fields. As Freeman Dyson writes in the introduction, science is an art form, not a philosophical method, and it is always in search of new tools. Reductionism has done its work, and scientists are in search of another. Roger Penrose offers
a fascinating account of irreducibility in mathematics, starting with the example of an impossible triangle--a drawing of a triangular object twisted so that could not exist in three dimensions. He breaks the triangle into three parts, showing that each corner is physically possible; only in
combination is the triangle impossible. Both Penrose and mathematician Gregory Chaitin explore Godel's incompleteness theorem--as does John Barrow, who explains that Chaitin's proof of the theorem shows that, if we ever arrive at a Theory of Everything, there may be a still deeper and simpler
unifying theory beyond that. Other contributors discuss the changing thinking in neuroscience, and the limitations of a mechanical view of the mind: as Oliver Sacks writes, if we are to have a model or theory of mind as this actually occurs in living creatures in the world, it may have to be
radically different from anything like a computational one. In addition, this volume includes staunch defenders of the classic scientific approach, such as Peter Atkins (The omnicompetence of science, and in particular the simplicity its reductionist insight reveals, should be accepted as a
working hypothesis until, if ever, it is proved inadequate).
The advance of science has been so startlingly swift in the last century that it has begun to approach limits never dreamed of before. This remarkable volume captures the latest thinking on where we must turn if we are to truly understand oursevles and the universe we live in.
since the Enlightenment, the authors write, science has pursued reductionism: the idea that the whole can be understood by examining and explaining each of its parts. But as this book shows, scientists in every discipline are reaching for a new paradigm that accounts for the whole--from the
individual person to the universe itself.
Nature's Imagination gathers together the work of thirteen leading mathematicians, astronomers, neuroscientists, and philosophers, as they discuss the revolution sweeping the sciences. Here Roger Penrose, Oliver Sacks, John Barrow, Gregory Chaitin, Maragret Boden, and others explore how and why
classic reductionism is falling by the wayside in their own fields. As Freeman Dyson writes in the introduction, science is an art form, not a philosophical method, and it is always in search of new tools. Reductionism has done its work, and scientists are in search of another. Roger Penrose offers
a fascinating account of irreducibility in mathematics, starting with the example of an impossible triangle--a drawing of a triangular object twisted so that could not exist in three dimensions. He breaks the triangle into three parts, showing that each corner is physically possible; only in
combination is the triangle impossible. Both Penrose and mathematician Gregory Chaitin explore Godel's incompleteness theorem--as does John Barrow, who explains that Chaitin's proof of the theorem shows that, if we ever arrive at a Theory of Everything, there may be a still deeper and simpler
unifying theory beyond that. Other contributors discuss the changing thinking in neuroscience, and the limitations of a mechanical view of the mind: as Oliver Sacks writes, if we are to have a model or theory of mind as this actually occurs in living creatures in the world, it may have to be
radically different from anything like a computational one. In addition, this volume includes staunch defenders of the classic scientific approach, such as Peter Atkins (The omnicompetence of science, and in particular the simplicity its reductionist insight reveals, should be accepted as a
working hypothesis until, if ever, it is proved inadequate).
The advance of science has been so startlingly swift in the last century that it has begun to approach limits never dreamed of before. This remarkable volume captures the latest thinking on where we must turn if we are to truly understand oursevles and the universe we live in.
- GenresScience
224 pages, Hardcover
First published March 30, 1995
3 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
John Cornwell
84 books49 followersJohn Cornwell is a British journalist, author, and academic. Since 1990 he has directed the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is also, since 2009, Founder and Director of the Rustat Conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (University of Leicester) in 2011. He was nominated for the PEN/Ackerley Prize for best UK memoir 2007 (Seminary Boy) and shortlisted Specialist Journalist of the Year (science, medicine in Sunday Times Magazine), British Press Awards 2006. He won the Scientific and Medical Network Book of the Year Award for Hitler's Scientists, 2005; and received the Independent Television Authority - Tablet Award for contributions to religious journalism (1994). In 1982 he won the Gold Dagger Award Non-Fiction (1982) for Earth to Earth. He is best known for his investigative journalism; memoir; and his work in public understanding of science. In addition to his books on the relationship between science, ethics and the humanities, he has written widely on the Catholic Church and the modern papacy.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 4, 2021
Some of the contributors in the later chapters get lost trying to fit cognition into an AI framework but overall a good read.
December 29, 2012
I found this book by chance whilst hunting for something completely different in a second-hand bookshop, and it's worth many times what I paid for it.
Since each chapter (or paper, really) is a unit on with its own author, I find it easier to read this book than other books which make you feel guilty if you haven't read them from cover to cover within a few weeks.
At times I struggle to continue reading this book with concentration, because I get so excited that I want to jump up and tell someone about the insights and ideas I am gaining.
I had a bit of a problem with the second chapter, because I can remember very little of the very little calculus which I once knew, and it relies on that understanding.
If you generally prefer to read romance novels, books on popular psychology, and inspirational poetry books with flowers on the cover, you probably should read this book, but I doubt that you would want to.
Since each chapter (or paper, really) is a unit on with its own author, I find it easier to read this book than other books which make you feel guilty if you haven't read them from cover to cover within a few weeks.
At times I struggle to continue reading this book with concentration, because I get so excited that I want to jump up and tell someone about the insights and ideas I am gaining.
I had a bit of a problem with the second chapter, because I can remember very little of the very little calculus which I once knew, and it relies on that understanding.
If you generally prefer to read romance novels, books on popular psychology, and inspirational poetry books with flowers on the cover, you probably should read this book, but I doubt that you would want to.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews