On Understanding Science: An Historical Approach

Conant, James B.

Published by Yale University Press - New Haven, 1947

About this Item

Grey cloth on boards with black lettering on front and spine. Book is tight, square, particularly sharp-cornered and free of markings or flaws inside and out. Fine or better. Unclipped Dust Jacket shows original price of $2.00 with mild wear and scuffing to spine, corners and edges. Close to Near Fine DJ. From the Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lectures on Religion in the Light of Science & Philosophy. With 10 illustrations. . 8vo., 146 pp., Author was the 23rd President of Harvard. From the Jacket: The language, customs, and manners of scientists are frequently unintelligible to the rest of the population, and there is considerable danger that the ideas and forces that are moving mountains will be increasingly inaccessible to those outside the laboratories. The peril of such a situation to a democracy, where understanding must be assumed to be fairly general, is probably as great in the realm of ideas as the physical danger of the instruments of destruction. Dr. Conant sets out to show how the gulf can be bridged. Instead of a series of assertions about science being ordered knowledge, or the classification of facts, he presents a historical view of a number of the great scientists, of what their generation knew of their subjects, of the problem they set out to examine, and of how they solved it. The reader is enabled to follow the scientific method at work, with all its limitations and wonders. 1st/1st.

Seller Inventory # blb02789

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On Understanding Science: An Historical Approach
• Publisher: Yale University Press - New Haven
• Publication Date: 1947
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mid-Century
  • Science
  • History