The Common Sense of Science: With a New Preface by Sir Hermann Bondi

by Jacob Bronowski

J. Bronowski was both a distinguished mathematician and a poet, a philosopher of science and a literary critic who wrote a well-known study of William Blake. Dr. Bronowski’s very career was founded on the premise of an intimate connection between science and the humanities, disciplines which are still generally thought to be worlds apart.

The Common Sense of Science , a book which remains as topical today as it was when it first appeared twenty-five years ago, articulates and develops Bronowski’s provocative idea that the sciences and the arts fundamentally share the same imaginative vision.

Genres: Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction, 20th Century

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1951

About the author

Jacob Bronowski was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

In 1950, Bronowski was given the Taung child's fossilized skull and asked to try, using his statistical skills, to combine a measure of the size of the skull's teeth with their shape in order to discriminate them from the teeth of apes. Work on this turned his interests towards the human biology of humanity's intellectual products.

In 1967 Bronowski delivered the six Silliman Memorial Lectures at Yale University and chose as his subject the role of imagination and symbolic language in the progress of scientific knowledge. Transcripts of the lectures were published posthumously in 1978 as The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination and remain in print.

He first became familiar to the British public through appearances on the BBC television version of The Brains Trust in the late 1950s. His ability to answer questions on many varied subjects led to an offhand reference in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus where one character states that "He knows everything." However Bronowski is best remembered for his thirteen part series The Ascent of Man (1973), a documentary about the history of human beings through scientific endeavour. This project was intended to parallel art historian Kenneth Clark's earlier "personal view" series Civilisation (1969) which had covered cultural history.

During the making of The Ascent of Man, Bronowski was interviewed by the popular British chat show host Michael Parkinson. Parkinson later recounted that Bronowski's description of a visit to Auschwitz—Bronowski had lost many family members during the Nazi era—was one of Parkinson's most memorable interviews.

Jacob Bronowski married Rita Coblentz in 1941. The couple had four children, all daughters, the eldest being the British academic Lisa Jardine and another being the filmmaker Judith Bronowski. He died in 1974 of a heart attack in East Hampton, New York a year after The Ascent of Man was completed, and was buried in the western side of London's Highgate Cemetery, near the entrance.

Reviews

[Ahmet Bakir Sbaai · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب قديم نسبيا لكنه يحمل أفكارا شديدة الراهنية خاصة في مواجهة النظرة العلموية.

[Ibrahem Aamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

يحاول الكاتب في سياق فصول الكتاب أن يفند الآلية العلمية كما نعرفها ونعتادها اليوم، ويرى أن تلك الأفكار التي نعرفها عن العلم اليوم لم تكن بديهية فيما قبل. ويرى أن التاريخ يقوم باختبار تلك الآليات على الدوام، وأن التمسك بطريقة واحدة لفهم الآلية العلمية دون محاولة نقدها أو تفنيدها يهدم جوهر العلم. ثم يحاول الكاتب الدفع بفكرة المصادفة كأساس فلسفي لتفسير الآلية العلمية الحديثة، على أنه لا يرفض مبدأ السببية بالكامل.

كما يرى الكاتب العلم على أنه أداة محايدة تقتصر مهامها على مساعدة الإنسان على فهم طبيعة ماحوله، وأن العلم كان وسيلتنا ونتاج جهودنا في محاولاتنا الدائمة للسيطرة على الطبيعة.

للكاتب أسلوب أدبي مميز استطاع المترجم ابرازه بشكل رائع، ويستعرض الكاتب في ثنايا فصوله العديد من النظريات العلمية التي سيستمتع بها القارئ غير المتخصص.

[Dennis Robbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title is derived from the book, “The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences” which inspires Bronowski’s work. An interesting book published decades before his landmark TV series, “The Ascent of Man” and it covers most of the same ground. His definition of science is a human activity that explicitly combines deliberate observational habits with rational thinking and logic, “Science is fact and thought giving strength to each other (p. 99).” He writes about the strong connection between art and science and in both cases writes about we derive meaning and value from their pursuits. I think overall he confuses the connection between science and technology even at time interchanging them. This work appears dated but the reader can still find meaningful reflections on the nature of science.

[Tahmin Sitab · Rating 3 out of 5]

can be proved as a stone turner for those who are looking forward to it. but who have already there this is simply not a book for them. lacked detail work and example. for me this book proved as a slight mental work.

[Ali Alsaffar · Rating 1 out of 5]

كتاب ركيك...
له عندي مثالب، لا يستحق ان اكثر الكلام عنه، فهو كتاب قديم كتب بعصر مزدحم بعبارات كالحرية والتقدم والخ الخ.

بدأ الكتاب قائلاً: العلم والادب مترابطان وثيقان ببعض لا يمكن الفصل بينهما
وختم الكتاب بنفس الجملة ولم يضفي شيئاً جديداً بتا

[Mark Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with most of Bronowski and have enjoyed reading several of his books - hence, he is a great thinker. This argument is for the most part well supported.

[Cheikh · Rating 1 out of 5]

هناك خلل في الترجمة او في عمق الموضوع
لم إفهم شيء

[Abirkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with a common trend in the reviews; This book is a bit dated, but I think there are some timeless truths within the text itself. As a physicist, I find the philosophical probing of science as we know it and as it has evolved over the past 150 years important. Primarily due to the nature of science and physics itself to be void of contemplation beyond absolute truths and understanding on a mathematical and structural level.

On that note, I think for me the most moving and intriguing parts tend to be towards the end.

Pg. 152: "I have seen in my lifetime an abyss open in the human mind: a gulf between the endeavor to be man, and the relish in being brute."

Pg 149: "The trend of science is made by the needs of society: Navigation before the eighteenth century, manufacture thereafter; and in our age I believe the liberation of personality..."

I think that this book probes at the undercurrent issue in our society today. The division between facts and truth with culture and emotions; And the issues that arise from the lack of properly connecting the two sides of the human personality; Logic, Reason, with emotion and Art.

I'd suggest reading this if that topic interests you. Not the hardest book to consume, there are definitely parts that read more like a retelling of history and the evolution. But I personally didn't mind it, for to come to great conclusions you need to guide your reader through the historical lens that has shaped the past.

[Karrarabd · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب قديم في وقته كان جيدا

[Sarah Sinclair]

accessed via archive.org: https://archive.org/details/commonsen...

edition: 1960, Random House

[primary source read] - enjoyed this, fully convinced even though I wasn't reading to be persuaded

[Pavel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine book, though the last chapter is conspicuously out of date.

[Marco Maged · Rating 3 out of 5]

"ان للقوانين العلمية هدفان الاول ان تكون صحيحة والثاني ان تكون مفيدة "
في تسعة فصول يتحدث جاكوب برونوفسكي حول فلسفة تاريخ العلم ومدي وكيفية وضرورة ومواكبة العلم وتغيرة الياتة ومعطياتة ونتائجة عبر الازمنة المختلفة
عبر زمن الحروب وحتي في عصر الثورة الصناعية متخذا من العلم ثلاث افكار رئيسية فكرة النظام وفكرة السببية وفكرة المصادفة
فالعلم هو الادراك " والادراك الصحيح ليس هو الذي تفرضة علي الوجود بل هو الذي نستمدة من الوجود ذاتة "