On Knowing--The Natural Sciences

Cover
University of Chicago Press, 15.01.1994 - 405 Seiten
Well before the current age of discourse, deconstruction, and multiculturalism, Richard McKeon propounded a philosophy of pluralism showing how "facts" and "values" are dependent on diverse ways of reading texts. This book is a transcription of an entire course, including both lectures and student discussions, taught by McKeon. As such, it provides an exciting introduction to McKeon's conception of pluralism, a central aspect of neo-Pragmatism, while demonstrating how pluralism works in a classroom setting.

In his lectures, McKeon outlines the entire history of Western thinking on the sciences. Treating the central concepts of motion, space, time, and cause, he traces modern intellectual debates back to the ancient Greeks, notably Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, and the Sophists. As he brings the story of Western science up to the twentieth century, he uses his fabled semantic schema (reproduced here for the first time) to uncover new ideas and observations about cosmology, mechanics, dynamics, and other aspects of physical science.

Illustrating the broad historical sweep of the lectures are a series of discussions which give detail to the course's intellectual framework. These discussions of Plato, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell are perhaps the first published rendition of a philosopher in literal dialogue with his students. Led by McKeon's pointed questioning, the discussions reveal the difficulties and possibilities of learning to engage in serious intellectual communication.
 

Inhalt

Knowledge Matrix
9
Philosophic Problems in the Natural Sciences
12
Four Kinds of Science
15
Characteristics of Space
21
Four Kinds of Nature
24
Discussion Plato Timaeus
25
Locating the Soul in Plato
45
88c90d
53
19
161
Time Velocity
173
21
180
Selection
185
Principle Method
188
22
204
24
226
25
240

Four Moments of the Modes of Thought
67
Lecture 3
68
Knowledge Matrix and Method
69
Lecture 4
74
Knowledge Matrix and Principle
75
Discussion Aristotle Physics
84
Book II Chapter 2 Book III Chapter 1
91
Book III Chapters 23 Book
104
14
107
Lecture 5
118
15
120
Motion
126
16
127
Discussion Galileo Two New Sciences
130
Definition and Axioms
138
17
147
18
155
26
261
Time Method Interpretation and Principle
281
Principle Method and Interpretation
283
Method Interpretation and Principle
292
Principle Method and Interpretation
294
Discussion Maxwell Matter and Motion
304
Semantic Profiles of Galileo Newton and Maxwell
316
Interpretation Method and Principle
330
Discussion Review
342
Class Schedule
357
Selected Lecture Notes on Cause
364
Discussion Notes For Einstein
373
Schema of Philosophic Semantics
380
Index
395
Lecture 6
400
Urheberrecht

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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Beliebte Passagen

Seite iv - Anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

Autoren-Profil (1994)

Richard McKeon (1900-85) was the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Chicago. David B. Owen is professor emeritus of education at Iowa State University.

Bibliografische Informationen