"Our age is marked by the triumph of science. Greek philosophers may have been the first to raise questions about the nature of matter, living entities, knowledge, will, truth, beauty, and goodness. In recent centuries, however, philosophy has steadily been yielding ground, enthusiastically or reluctantly, to empirical science. Why speculate endlessly about the physical or biological world when you can carry out laboratory experiments, make precise measurements, test predictions, and revise proposed explanatory theories in light of findings? If there are material or psychic costs to this unflinchingly empirical approach, most of us have no desire to confront them (Cf. Joy, 2000)..."
from Howard Gardner's review of
What Makes Us Think?:
http://pzweb.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_Changeux.htm
Best wishes,
Christina
what a nice way to define OUR AGE....gr8 words used! I'll better check the article!
OECD expert Wrote:"Our age is marked by the triumph of science. Greek philosophers may have been the first to raise questions about the nature of matter, living entities, knowledge, will, truth, beauty, and goodness. In recent centuries, however, philosophy has steadily been yielding ground, enthusiastically or reluctantly, to empirical science. Why speculate endlessly about the physical or biological world when you can carry out laboratory experiments, make precise measurements, test predictions, and revise proposed explanatory theories in light of findings? If there are material or psychic costs to this unflinchingly empirical approach, most of us have no desire to confront them (Cf. Joy, 2000)..."
from Howard Gardner's review of What Makes Us Think?:
http://pzweb.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_Changeux.htm
Best wishes,
Christina
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June (circa)10, 2006
Good Morning,
Interesting subject: Two books that I would like to recommend that get us thinking are
[I]Theories of the World...From Antiquity to The Copernican Revolution by Michael J. Crowe and Considered Judgment by Catherine Z. Elgin. [/I] Both books while different in context address thinking from two brilliant authors' prospectives.
Be well,
Rob