Fact, Faith and Fiction in the Development of Science
The Gifford Lectures Given in the University of St Andrews 1976
Authors: Hooykaas, R.
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- About this book
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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 (12 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 5-16
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On Natural Theology
Pages 17-25
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Harmony in Nature
Pages 27-77
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The Philosopher’s Stone
Pages 79-98
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The Undying Fire Qualitative Theories of Stahl and Lavoisier
Pages 99-115
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Fact, Faith and Fiction in the Development of Science
- Book Subtitle
- The Gifford Lectures Given in the University of St Andrews 1976
- Authors
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- R. Hooykaas
- Series Title
- Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
- Series Volume
- 205
- Copyright
- 1999
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
- eBook ISBN
- 978-94-015-9295-6
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-94-015-9295-6
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-0-7923-5774-2
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-90-481-5248-3
- Series ISSN
- 0068-0346
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XVI, 462
- Topics
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