Science In The Looking Glass: What Do Scientists Really Know? - Softcover

Davies, E. Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199219184 ISBN 13: 9780199219186

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2009

Synopsis

How do scientific conjectures become laws? Why does proof mean different things in different sciences? Do numbers exist, or were they invented? Why do some laws turn out to be wrong? In this wide-ranging book, Brian Davies discusses the basis for scientists' claims to knowledge about the world. He looks at science historically, emphasizing not only the achievements of scientists from Galileo onwards, but also their mistakes. He rejects the claim that all scientific knowledge is provisional, by citing examples from chemistry, biology and geology. A major feature of the book is its defence of the view that mathematics was invented rather than discovered. While experience has shown that disentangling knowledge from opinion and aspiration is a hard task, this book provides a clear guide to the difficulties. Full of illuminating examples and quotations, and with a scope ranging from psychology and evolution to quantum theory and mathematics, this book brings alive issues at the heart of all science.

About this title

Review:

Review from previous edition An original and superbly intelligent attempt by someone who knows and loves the subject, to challenge the misconceptions and transcendental mysteries that cling so beguilingly to mathematics... accessible, non-technical style... fresh and exhilarating. (Brian Rotman, Times Literary Supplement)

Science in the Looking Glass is worth reading in your leisure time. It is stimulating even when you disagree with the author. (Physics Today)

...it is a brilliant work, beautifully written, and brimming with surprising information and stimulating philosophical speculations. (Notices of the AMS)

I highly recommend this book and hope that it is widely read by scientists and laypeople alike. (Bill Rowe, American Journal of Psychology)

About the Author:

Professor E. B. DaviesDepartment of MathematicsKing's College London

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0199219184
• ISBN 13: 9780199219186
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312