The Search for a Naturalistic World View Volume 1 Abner Shimony Books
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Abner Shimony is one of the most eminent of present-day philosophers of science, whose work has exerted a profound influence in both the philosophy and physics communities. This two-volume collection of his essays written over a period of forty years explores the interrelations between science and philosophy. Shimony regards the knowing subject as an entity in nature whose faculties must be studied from the points of view of evolutionary biology and empirical psychology. He maintains that the twentieth century is one of the great ages of metaphysics, given the deep implications of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and molecular biology. Nevertheless he rejects the thesis that mentality is entirely explicable in physical terms and argues that mind has a fundamental place in nature. Though distinguishing between values and scientifically established facts, Shimony holds that the sense of wonder cultivated by the natural sciences is one of the noblest of human values. The first volume, Scientific Method and Epistemology, deals with the dialectic of subject and object, epistemic probability, induction and scientific theories, perception and conception, and fact and values. The focus of the second volume, Natural Science and Metaphysics, is on quantum mechanical measurement and nonlocality, parts and wholes, time, and mind and matter. The volumes will be of great interest to a broad range of philosophers of science as well as those who teach epistemology and metaphysics. The collection will also be read by philosophically-minded natural scientists, especially physicists.
The Search for a Naturalistic World View Volume 1 Abner Shimony Books
According to V. Mansfield's excellent book, "Science Synchronicity and Soul-making," Abner Shimony is known for articulating the metaphysical implications of Bell's inequality violations. Experimental tests show that the properties of subatomic particles (spin, charge etc) are invariably coupled or correlated, even at distances exceeding the ability of information to be transferred at the speed of light. Therefore, the universe is inherently non-local, seemingly discrete objects are connected at a deep level, and any theory of the universe must take this into account. Surely "experimental metaphysics" is important. But I didn't learn any of that here. These essays, written between 1955-1989, cover some interesting topics: "Is observation theory-laden?" and "Comments on 2 epistemological theses of Thomas Kuhn." But the writing is dense in the extreme, and oriented toward narrow specialists in physics and epistemelogy. As the author puts it [p.304]: "The argument of the preceding paragraph [a critique of Kuhnian skepticism] misses many of the subtleties and important cognate issues that can be found in the literature on the existence of external objects. (At least I hope that this is so, for it would be depressing to think that such an immense corpus could be distilled without loss to so small a residue!)" Personally, I find logic-chopping tedious and unproductive, and I vote "Distill!" Educated non-specialists looking for a semi-popular book on quantum physics and philosophy should look elsewhere. But if this sort of thing is professionally meaningful to you, Shimony comes with high credentials. .Product details
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The Search for a Naturalistic World View Volume 1 Abner Shimony Books Reviews
This is a collection of masterful papers relating to the relationship between science and philosophy. For those seeking to understand "experimental metaphysics," one should really read Volume II rather than Volume I. I do more strongly recommend Volume II, which more directly engages physics.
According to V. Mansfield's excellent book, "Science Synchronicity and Soul-making," Abner Shimony is known for articulating the metaphysical implications of Bell's inequality violations. Experimental tests show that the properties of subatomic particles (spin, charge etc) are invariably coupled or correlated, even at distances exceeding the ability of information to be transferred at the speed of light. Therefore, the universe is inherently non-local, seemingly discrete objects are connected at a deep level, and any theory of the universe must take this into account. Surely "experimental metaphysics" is important. But I didn't learn any of that here. These essays, written between 1955-1989, cover some interesting topics "Is observation theory-laden?" and "Comments on 2 epistemological theses of Thomas Kuhn." But the writing is dense in the extreme, and oriented toward narrow specialists in physics and epistemelogy. As the author puts it [p.304] "The argument of the preceding paragraph [a critique of Kuhnian skepticism] misses many of the subtleties and important cognate issues that can be found in the literature on the existence of external objects. (At least I hope that this is so, for it would be depressing to think that such an immense corpus could be distilled without loss to so small a residue!)" Personally, I find logic-chopping tedious and unproductive, and I vote "Distill!" Educated non-specialists looking for a semi-popular book on quantum physics and philosophy should look elsewhere. But if this sort of thing is professionally meaningful to you, Shimony comes with high credentials. .
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