{"product_id":"the-knowledge-machine-how-irrationality-created-modern-science-hardcover","title":"The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Strevens\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Why is science so powerful?\u003cbr\u003e - Why did it take so long--two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics--for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike such classic works as Karl Popper's \u003cem\u003eThe Logic of Scientific Discovery\u003c\/em\u003e and Thomas Kuhn's \u003cem\u003eThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Knowledge Machine\u003c\/em\u003e grapples with the meaning and origins of science, using a plethora of vivid historical examples to demonstrate that scientists willfully ignore religion, theoretical beauty, and even philosophy to embrace a constricted code of argument whose very narrowness channels unprecedented energy into empirical observation and experimentation. Strevens calls this scientific code the iron rule of explanation, and reveals the way in which the rule, precisely because it is unreasonably close-minded, overcomes individual prejudices to lead humanity inexorably toward the secrets of nature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With a mixture of philosophical and historical argument, and written in an engrossing style\" (Alan Ryan), \u003cem\u003eThe Knowledge Machine\u003c\/em\u003e provides captivating portraits of some of the greatest luminaries in science's history, including Isaac Newton, the chief architect of modern science and its foundational theories of motion and gravitation; William Whewell, perhaps the greatest philosopher-scientist of the early nineteenth century; and Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark. Today, Strevens argues, in the face of threats from a changing climate and global pandemics, the idiosyncratic but highly effective scientific knowledge machine must be protected from politicians, commercial interests, and even scientists themselves who seek to open it up, to make it less narrow and more rational--and thus to undermine its devotedly empirical search for truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRich with illuminating and often delightfully quirky illustrations, \u003cem\u003eThe Knowledge Machine\u003c\/em\u003e, written in a winningly accessible style that belies the import of its revisionist and groundbreaking concepts, radically reframes much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.3 x 9.4 x 6.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 13, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51769196020000,"sku":"9781631491375","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/8841730de1dee243df9aeaab752efdd5.webp?v=1780343533","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-knowledge-machine-how-irrationality-created-modern-science-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}