From certainty to uncertainty: the story of science and ideas in the twentieth century

✍ Scribed by Peat, F. David

• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 247
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this ... book, [the author] examines the basic philosophic certainty that characterized the thinking of humankind through the nineteenth century and contrasts it with the startling fall of certainty in the twentieth. Indeed, the nineteenth century was marked by a boundless optimism and confidence in the power of progress and technology ... [The book] traces the rise and fall of the deterministic universe and shows the evolving influences that such disparate disciplines have on one another. Drawing on the lessons we can learn from history. [In the book, he] speculates on how we might look to manage our lives into the uncertain future.-Dust jacket.  Read more...

Abstract: In this ... book, [the author] examines the basic philosophic certainty that characterized the thinking of humankind through the nineteenth century and contrasts it with the startling fall of certainty in the twentieth. Indeed, the nineteenth century was marked by a boundless optimism and confidence in the power of progress and technology ... [The book] traces the rise and fall of the deterministic universe and shows the evolving influences that such disparate disciplines have on one another. Drawing on the lessons we can learn from history. [In the book, he] speculates on how we might look to manage our lives into the uncertain future.-Dust jacket

✦ Table of Contents

Content: Quantum uncertainty --
On incompleteness --
From object to process --
Language --
End of representation --
From clockwork to chaos --
Re-envisioning the planet --
Pausing the Cosmos.

✦ Subjects

Physics -- Philosophy.;Certainty.;Chaotic behavior in systems.;Physics -- History -- 20th century.;Physics.