Is science neurotic? - Hardcover

Maxwell, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860945007 ISBN 13: 9781860945007

Publisher: Icp, 2004

Synopsis

Is Science Neurotic? sets out to show that science suffers from a damaging but rarely noticed methodological disease - ''rationalistic neurosis.'' Assumptions concerning metaphysics, human value and politics, implicit in the aims of science, are repressed, and the malaise has spread to affect the whole academic enterprise, with the potential for extraordinarily damaging long-term consequences. The book begins with a discussion of the aims and methods of natural science, and moves on to discuss social science, philosophy, education, psychoanalytic theory and academic inquiry as a whole. It makes an original and compelling contribution to the current debate between those for and those against science, arguing that science would be of greater human value if it were more rigorous - we suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little. The author discusses the need for a revolution in the aims of science and academic inquiry in general and, in a lively and accessible style, spells out a thesis with profound importance for the long-term future of humanity.

About this title

Product Description

Is Science Neurotic? - Has dramatic implications for social science and the humanities, for philosophy and for education - Written in an informal, accessible form (with the exception of the appendix, which is more technical) Full description

Review

Maxwell eloquently discusses the astonishing advances and the terrifying realities of science without global wisdom....Maxwell's book is first-rate

My judgement of this book is favourable ... (Maxwell's) heart is in the right place, as he casts a friendly but highly critical eye on the Enlightenment Movement. 'We suffer, not from too much scientific rationality, but from not enough' he says ... recommending a massive cooperation between science and the humanities ... The book's style is refres -- Philosophy of Science "Philosophy of Science"

Edition details

• Publisher: Icp
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860945007
• ISBN 13: 9781860945007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260