Product Description
History: Fiction or Science? is the most explosive tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by solid scientific data. The book is well-illustrated, contains over 446 graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays, which never cease to amaze the reader. Eminent mathematician proves that: Jesus Christ was born in 1153 and crucified in 1186 The Old Testament refers to mediaeval events. Apocalypse was written after 1486. Does this sound uncanny? This version of events is substantiated by hard facts and logic - validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources - to a greater extent than everything you may have read and heard about history before. The dominating historical discourse in its current state was essentially crafted in the XVI century from a rather contradictory jumble of sources such as innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts whose originals had vanished in the Dark Ages and the allegedly irrefutable proof offered by late mediaeval astronomers, resting upon the power of ecclesial authorities. Nearly all of its components are blatantly untrue! For some of us, it shall possibly be quite disturbing to see the magnificent edifice of classical history to turn into an ominous simulacrum brooding over the snake pit of mediaeval politics. Twice so, in fact: the first seeing the legendary millenarian dust on the ancient marble turn into a mere layer of dirt - one that meticulous unprejudiced research can eventually remove. The second, and greater, attack of unease comes with the awareness of just how many areas of human knowledge still trust the three elephants of the consensual chronology to support them. Nothing can remedy that except for an individual chronological revolution happening in the minds of a large enough number of people. ... Read more

Book Description
Philosophy of science and history of science have a significant relation to science; but what is their relation to each other?Analysis & review of work on the question, especially in philosophy, is the focus of this 1991 Philosophy thesis at UC San Diego. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great work of scholarship
In 839 large pages of succinct text in small print, 30 Italian scholars and the eminent French mathematician Jean Dieudonne have succeeded in presenting the history all branches of technology, science and mathematics from prehistory till 1970. For each period the major trends are first discussed and then the period is subdivided into shorter time segments (decades for the periods after 1600) and the outstanding contributions to each subject in each time segment are described or mentioned.

To give detailed explanations of the advances of the last 150 years would require hundreds of volumes. The authors used their very good judgement of what should be briefly discussed, what should be sketched in a few words only and what and who should be merely mentioned. This is a history of science, not an introduction to science; the reader is assumed to know something about the topics that are discussed.

An excellent index with 13,000+ entries enables one to find the history of particular items with ease.

----------------------- Re the Booknews review: The reviewer says the book is intended for high school libraries. This gives one the idea that most of the items discussed in it could be expected to be familiar to at least the better high school students.He apparently thinks thebook was intended to be something like the World Book of the history of science. This is totally mistaken. The book is a chronology of all of science and technology, not just the tiny fraction familiar to our better students and teachers. Inevitably, much of the discussion will be meaningful only to those familiar with the topics whose history is discussed.As far as references go, it would have indeed been useful to give the sources of information concerning the remote past. The original sources for more recent timeswould fill hundreds of additional pages and should not be excessively difficult to find, using the name of the author and the date.

The rest of the points the Booknews reviewer makes are petty, and here!are my comments concerning these matters. The reviewer calls the work "outdated", presumably because it stops with 1970. If he had been able to discern the degree of expertise which is reflected in this work, he would have understood that adding two more decades to the chronology would have added too much to the cost and time required to publish the book in English. In any case, most of us who consult a work on the history of science want to know about some advance that occurred more than 25 years ago. The Booknews reviewer seems to think that the 50-page index should have been duplicated in the first volume. Those of us who are not too lazy to reach for the second volume would resent the extra cost and weight. The paper of my copy, acidic or not, shows no sign of becoming yellow or brittle after 9 years. ... Read more

Book Description
The second volume of Dr Joseph Needham's great work Science and Civilisation in China is devoted to the history of scientific thought. Beginning with ancient times, it describes the Confucian milieu in which arose the organic naturalism of the great Taoist school, the scientific philosophy of the Mohists and Logicians, and the quantitative materialism of the Legalists. Thus we are brought on to the fundamental ideas which dominated scientific thinking in the Chinese middle ages. The author opens his discussion by considering the remote and pictographic origins of words fundamental in scientific discourse, and then sets forth the influential doctrines of the Two Forces and the Five Elements. Subsequently he writes of the important sceptical tradition, the effects of Buddhist thought, and the Neo-Confucian climax of Chinese naturalism. Last comes a discussion of the conception of Laws of Nature in China and the West. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

adense and devoted vision of classical china
It is very difficult to convey the great scope of this work.It has
been described as one of the l00 most significant works of non-fiction
of the 20th century.Only ArthurWaley, perhaps, had a greater role in
introducingthe values and creative force of classical China to the west
than Joseph Needham.Needham, with a group of devoted scholars in the
AcademicaSinica,labored over 40 years to produce this series, which
is without comparison in any european language.Not content with
superficial descriptions, at any stage, Needham uncovers the seminal
sources , at every juncture, todescribe the birth and evolution
of this unique source of speculative, always empirical, yet spiritual
thought.One of it's greatest values is as a counter-point to the
growth of our own tradition, from its Greek sources through the
renaissance, and beyond.To give historical and cultural context,
Needham uses the seminal Greeksources, throughout, to show the
contrast as well as the originality of Chinese sources. The other
significant contribution, placing China within the context of world
cultures, is to explain the sources and development of China's own
empirical traditions and their growth into rigorous disciplines, and
their own concepts of time and cosmology.
Although this second volume does go into the development of
Taoism with considerable depth, it is not a great source for learning
the literary or artistic traditions of China.But as a guide to China's
emerging views of the natural world from astronomy to Chemistry,
Needham's work is without equal.


... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A good overview
If there is one belief that is held as an axiom in modern philosophy, it is that Western science needs a philosophical foundation. Science is held by some philosophers to be an inconsistent system of beliefs, by other philosophers a system that cannotbe distinguished from magic, and by some political philosophers a perfect sign of Western power and domination. This book, in spite of its small size, gives a good historical overview of the ideas that resulted in the rise of modern science and its philosophical criticism. There is much more that could have been included by the author, but a comprehensive account would fill dozens of volumes.

The author justifies his historical approach in the preface of the book, holding that the usual approach treats the subject from what he calls a "quasi-historical" perspective. The texts of philosophy are treated as if they were of secondary significance he argues, with emphasis placed instead on the philosophical problems they generate. This results in a distorted view of the history of philosophy he says, and so his goal is to examine both the history of the philosophy and methodology of science.

The book takes one from the forms of Plato to the modern sociologists of knowledge. Along the way, one gains an appreciation of the attitudes taken toward scientific knowledge, with enthusiasm and skepticism each having approximately equal representation. Science is very different from philosophy, and refreshingly the author realizes this. Philosophical systems of thought do not have the constraint of experimental evidence that science does. Therefore it can engage in endless speculations and theorizing, which results in a very rapid build-up of information.

Again, this book will give one an appreciation of the philosophy of science as it took place throughout history. It can be said with confidence that readers interested in philosophy will like the book more then those interested in science. If after reading this book one concluded that science needed some sort of philosophical underpinning or foundation then this would be mistaken. Science does not need any such foundation, but it does rely sometimes on the critical thinking that characterizes philosophical argumentation. This dependence will continue, and no doubt the extraordinary advances made in science in the twenty-first century will instigate new thinking in philosophy. This thinking will both be for and against science, but of course, science will survive it, whatever its form.

the best intro to the field of the philosophy of science
Simply a wow, must stop and read book IF you are interesting in any aspect of science. My only regrets in reading the book are that (1)i am finished with it (2)that i didn't read it 30 years ago. Not because it is original or thought provoking as much as it is that ellusive puts-it-all-together broadly covering subjects that you know something about but just-couldn't-put-it-into-words type of book. That review article that gives you the needed perspective and points to a million places for further study, thus energizing what looked like an impossible task you were just about to abort.

The author is witty, interesting, well spoken and at points understatedly humorous. He has that professor's mind shaped by years of trying to convince students that what he finds fascinating is in fact something that ought to keep them awake in their lecture hall seats. The organizing principle is stated, restated, reshaped and appears in slightly different forms in every chapter and is an image that can be seen and reworked a million times in a learner's mind. This is the title, the arch of knowledge, up one side from the empirical via induction to general principles and down the other leg via deductive reasoning (this is just one of the incarnations of the arch), the whole thing is science, but the analysis of the arch is metascience(the author's word) and his book is meta-metascience(again his word) as it discusses the various way of constructing and understanding this analogy.

The organization is historical, starting with the "Ancient Tradition" with the Greeks, and proceeding chronologically via the careful analysis of individual's, their contribution to the architecture of the arch, and with particular attention to the problems they encountered and were desireous of solving. Contextualization, the putting into a great big picture of the march of science and of the flow of metascience in thinking about science, is always in the forefront of the author's intentions. There are times where he literally says that there is more interesting things to talk about here, that he is really interested personally in the topic, but it would interfere with the flow and learner's understanding if he were to pursue this topic. Along with this, both the individual chapter endnotes and the reference section at the book's end are treasures of 'where-to-go-from-here', but only complaint is that the book is dated 1986 and thus the references are dated and/or hard-to-find. But the book, being a historical survey could be updated by the addition of a new chapter or two, not necessarily a complete rewrite as is often needed in the sciences.

There have been many times in the recent past where i wished for such a book to be able to share the title with someone in an online discussion that just appeared to know nearly nothing about the big issues underlying the philosophy of science. Well now i have the book title to share. I am almost to the point that i would appreciate a comprehensive quiz or a required reading list in order to enter into discussion groups on technical or scientific topics. The pure bulk of garbage, of uneducated or foolish opinions, makes the noise to signal ratio so high that i contemplate leaving and sticking just to peer reviewed journals and published books. This book being read by a significant portion of those attempting to discuss issues in the creation-evolution-design CED debate, (which is the forum where i dwell of late, and what brought this book to my attention), would certainly uplift these discussions, to everyone's benefit. If you want to discuss evolutionary biology, or the relationship of science to religion as it impinges in this sphere, you simply must grasp the material presented in this book. Otherwise you are wasting time, rehashing, retracing, rebuilding the doomed, and generally not getting anywhere constructive. And that is the value of such a book: basic, learnable, systematic introduction to a rather complex twisting field that is of general interest to significant portions of the general public, who may be, and often are tempted to think that science is democratic in that even the uninformed opinion (that is their's) is of value. "Everyone has a right to their opinion, but no one has a right to demand that i take their opinion seriously UNLESS they have done their homework." In general philosophy of science 101, this is the best book i have yet encountered. Go for it.

The Arch of Knowledge
A fantastic history of philosophy with a scientific spin. From Plato and Aristotle, through Galileo, Descartes, Leibniz and Newton to Positivists, Pragmatists and right up to the 80s!
Terrific as a popular overview but includes a comprehensive bibliography for more serious readers. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume is a comprehensive account of knowledge of the natural world in Europe, ca. 1500-1700.Often referred to as the Scientific Revolution, this period saw major transformations in fields as diverse as anatomy and astronomy, natural history and mathematics. Articles by leading specialists describe in clear, accessible prose supplemented by extensive bibliographies, how new ideas, discoveries, and institutions shaped the ways in which nature came to be studied, understood, and used. ... Read more

Book Description
An illuminating and highly readable survey of the growth of scientific ideas.It's a history of natural science--from the astronomy of ancient Babylon to the astrophysics of today's space research centers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Waiting for an Inspiring Vivid Review of a Great History of Science

Science and History:
Science is a human activity which helped develop a cumulative tradition of inter­ related techniques, of empirical knowledge, and theoritical postulates, with refer­ence to the natural world. Professor stephen Mason proposes two primary sources for the historical roots in Science, the practical experiences and skills handed on and developed from one generation to another; future aspirations and novel ideas adopted and expanded. Those traditions existed before civilization were established. Defining what science has presented and has historically accomplished, he finds it difficult to formulate a definition which holds for all times, in different places. Behind the changing character of science throughout the ages, he debates, there has been a sense of continuity, for the generations of each period have developed and enlarged some aspects of the science handed down to them.

Scientific Thought:
A History of the Sciences originally appeared under the title, "Main Currents of Scientific Thought," with the same chapters;
Part 1. Ancient Science
Part 2. Science In the Orient and Medieval Europe
Part 3. The Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Part 4. 18th-Century Science:Development of National Scientific Traditions
Part 5. 19th Century: The Agent of Industrial and Intellectual Change
Part 6. Twentieth-Century Science New Fields and New Powers
Dr. Mason makes evident the influence of philosophical and theological conceptions on scientific inquiry, and in telling his story and also exhibits the roles played by social and technological needs in determining the direction of scientific research. The book's core is determined to be in the modern period; though it pro­vides an admirable historical perspective for appreciating the important intellectual and practical problems facing us as a result of the continuing expansion of the scientific enterprise.

Book Praise:
"In my judgment, it is by far the best one-volume account in English of the development of the natural sciences. It presents an illuminating and highly readable survey of the growth of scientific ideas from ancient to contemporary achievements, and it includes much material not readily accessible otherwise on the contributions only recently discovered of Babylonian, Oriental as well as Medieval science." Ernest Nagel, author of The Structure of Science

Science History Perfected:
Sarton, the eminent authority on the history of science, considers that science is unique as a truly cu­mulative and progressive human activity. But only a side of science has been cumulative up to the present time,its practical techni­ques and its empirical concepts and laws. Viewed within a long time scale, the theories of science have been transitory.
Similarly, given a continuance of the present pace of scientific research activity and discoveries, we can hardly suppose that only the fundamental scientific theories of today will remain holding for long.
Professor Mason started rewriting his History of the Sciences 1953, I hope he releases the first part and endorse the history with visual aids, including maps, photos and drawings.

Eminent Author:
Stephen F. Mason worked on his Ph. D. at Oxford University, whereafter he taught chemistry and the history of science (1947-1953). He was then a Research Fellow in the Wellcome Institute, London. In l956 he moved to a lectureship in physical organic chemistry at Exeter University holding Readership in chemical spectroscopy. He was Professor of Chemistry at King's College London (1970-1988). From l988 he has been Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of London, and Honorary Research Associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. Since completing his Chemical Evolution (1991)

Perfect for non-scientists
This is the best one volume work available covering the entire history of science from Ancient Egypt to the 20th Century (including non-Western civilizations). Mason avoids technical jargon and relates science to the everyday world as well as to the world of theory. The book is meant for non-specialists and will give anyone who reads it a real understanding of what science is all about and why it is important.

A great read!
After reading tons of fiction, it's refreshing to pick this book up. Nomatter how much you know already, you'll find new things here. I recommendthis book especially for you scientists and engineers out there, who areusually curious about everything. Mason covers it all from ancient Greekscience to quantum physics and beyond. I especially appreciated the sectionon Descartes. This is a book you do not have to read from start to finish,you can start wherever you want and jump around. Also, the writing does notread like a reference, thankfully, it flows at an enjoyable pace andpresents the sciences in an interesting way. ... Read more

Book Description

This informative reference series is designed to help students understand the impact that science has had on the course of human history. Each set (the 18th and 20th century sets will come out in 2001 and 2002) focuses on a particular time period and consists of five topically arranged chapters covering life sciences, mathematics, medicine, physical sciences and technology. Chapters include a topic-specific chronology; a brief overview essay; 10-12 essays on the theories, inventions and major concepts discovered during the period; 10-12 biographies of pioneering scientists; lists of additional resources; and more. Additional features include approximately 60 black-and-white illustrations per volume, sidebars highlighting words to know and activity ideas, and general and subject indexes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Timeless
This comprehensive book is designed for older elementary or middle school students.This book could be used in so many ways.

Particularly relevant to teaching US history, for example, is Fulton's invention of the steamboat, Audubon's publication of Birds of America, McCormick's invention of the mechanical reaping machine, Goodyear's accident with rubber, Bell's invention of the telephone, Edison's creation of the phonograph, Michelson and Morley experiment with ether, and Hollerith's calculator. The book contains timelines, stories about scientists, and visuals to support the text. ... Read more

Book Description
Many students major in the Humanities or Social Sciences because they love their chosen academic fields, however few schools provide solid advice about how students can apply their studies to a career.This unique and informative guide directs History and Political Science majors to career paths that will make the most of their educational backgrounds. It includes chapters on further academic study, fellowship opportunities, and understanding career options, as well as practical and detailed job search tips and strategies.

What to Do with Your History or Political Science Degree includes:
·Practical advice on identifying career goals
·Profiles of popular career paths
·Interview and networking tips
·Special Q&A section with former majors who are now successfully pursuing careers they love
·Appendices that provide listings of relevant internship and fellowship opportunities ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first-ever critical history of sociology in Britain, written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field.Renowned British sociologist, A. H. Halsey, presents a vivid and authoritative picture of the neglect, expansion, fragmentation, and explosion of the discipline during the past century.He is well equipped to write the story, having lived through most of it and having taught and researched in Britain, the USA, and Europe.The story begins with L.T. Hobhouse's election to the first chair in sociology in London in 1907, but traces earlier origins of the discipline to Scotland and the English provinces.There is a lively account of the nineteenth-century battles between literature and science for the possession of the third culture of social studies, setting the context for a narrative history of rapid expansion in the second half of the twentieth century.LSE had a virtual monopoly before World War II.The educational establishment of Oxford and Cambridge opposed its introduction into the undergraduate curriculum.Only the expansion of sociology to the Scottish, Welsh, provincial, and 'new' universities after the Robbins Report of 1963 brought reluctant acceptance of the subject to Oxford and Cambridge.The student troubles of 1968 are then described and the subsequent doubts, confrontations, and cuts of the 1970s and 80s.Then, paradoxically by a Conservative Government, there was a new university expansion incorporating polytechnics and other colleges, with a consequent doubling of both staff and students in the 1990s.Yet the end of the century left sociology riven by intellectual conflict.It had survived the Marxist subversions of the 70s and the feminist invasion.Yet the renewed challenges of various forms of relativism (especially enthno-methodology and post-modernism) still threatened, and at root the war was, as it began, between a scientific quantifying and explanatory subject and a literary, interpretative set of cultural studies. ... Read more

Book Description
The Islamic scientific tradition has been described many times in accounts of Islamic civilization and general histories of science, with most authors tracing its beginnings to the appropriation of ideas from other ancient civilizations--the Greeks in particular. In this thought-provoking and original book, George Saliba argues that, contrary to the generally accepted view, the foundations of Islamic scientific thought were laid well before Greek sources were formally translated into Arabic in the ninth century. Drawing on an account by the tenth-century intellectual historian Ibn al-Nadīm that is ignored by most modern scholars, Saliba suggests that early translations from mainly Persian and Greek sources outlining elementary scientific ideas for the use of government departments were the impetus for the development of the Islamic scientific tradition. He argues further that there was an organic relationship between the Islamic scientific thought that developed in later centuries and the science that came into being in Europe during the Renaissance.

Saliba outlines the conventional accounts of Islamic science, then discusses their shortcomings and proposes an alternate narrative. Using astronomy as a template for understanding the progress of science in Islamic civilization, Saliba demonstrates the originality of Islamic scientific thought. He details the innovations (including new mathematical tools) made by the Islamic astronomers from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, and offers evidence that Copernicus could have known of and drawn on their work. Rather than viewing the rise and fall of Islamic science from the often-narrated perspectives of politics and religion, Saliba focuses on the scientific production itself and the complex social, economic, and intellectual conditions that made it possible. ... Read more

Book Description
Cognitive science is among the most fascinating intellectual achievements of the modern era. The quest to understand the mind is an ancient one. But modern science has offered new insights and techniques that have revolutionized this enquiry. Oxford University Press now presents a masterly history of the field, told by one of its most eminent practitioners. Psychology is the thematic heart of cognitive science, which aims to understand human (and animal) minds. But its core theoretical ideas are drawn from cybernetics and artificial intelligence, and many cognitive scientists try to build functioning models of how the mind works. In that sense, Margaret Boden suggests, its key insight is that mind is a (very special) machine. Because the mind has many different aspects, the field is highly interdisciplinary. It integrates psychology not only with cybernetics/AI, but also with neuroscience and clinical neurology; with the philosophy of mind, language, and logic; with linguistic work on grammar, semantics, and communication; with anthropological studies of cultures; and with biological (and A-Life) research on animal behaviour, evolution, and life itself. Each of these disciplines, in its own way, asks what the mind is, what it does, how it works, how it develops---and how it is even possible. Boden traces the key questions back to Descartes's revolutionary writings, and to the ideas of his followers--and his radical critics--through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her story shows how controversies in the development of experimental physiology, neurophysiology, psychology, evolutionary biology, embryology, and logic are still relevant today. Then she guides the reader through the complex interlinked paths along which the study of mind developed in the twentieth century. Cognitive science covers all mental phenomena: not just 'cognition' (knowledge), but also emotion, personality, psychopathology, social communication, religion, motor action, and consciousness. In each area, Boden introduces the key ideas and researchers and discusses those philosophical critics who see cognitive science as fundamentally misguided. And she sketches the waves of resistance and acceptance on the part of the media and general public, showing how these have affected the development of the field. No one else could tell this story as Boden can: she has been a member of the cognitive science community since the late-1950s, and has known many of its key figures personally. Her narrative is written in a lively, swift-moving style, enriched by the personal touch of someone who knows the story at first hand. Her history looks forward as well as back: besides asking how state-of-the-art research compares with the hopes of the early pioneers, she identifies the most promising current work. Mind as Machine will be a rich resource for anyone working on the mind, in any academic discipline, who wants to know how our understanding of mental capacities has advanced over the years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A memoir, not a history
This two volume work is so huge because it is an apparently unedited text with a wandering associative organization (or disorganization), no apparent limits on what is included.There are major irrelevant digressions into hobby horse topics of the author's, such as early efforts to make automata.Furthermore, it does not meet the accuracy standards that one would hope for in a history.I found numerous inaccuracies in the areas I know well.That is why I characterize it as a memoir.
Despite the huge size, coverage is limited to North America and the UK.Cognitive science in Europe and Asia are neglected.
In addition, the huge size makes for a user unfriendly document.There are many cross-references to other sections of the text that may well be in the other volume, and all of the references are at the end of the second volume.The cross-references are typically imprecise, to a large section, and it is not always obvious what was meant.
I regret having spent the money to buy this work.The best I can say for it is that it should be in university libraries as a research resource for those who might write better, more useful histories of cognitive science.But those authors had better do their own fact checking.

Excellent
Review of Volume 2 (August 25, 2007):
With few exceptions, the second volume of "Mind As Machine" respects the high quality of the first, and can be read and understood by anyone with a general background in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, or psychology. At times the author seems intimidated by some of the mathematical developments that have taken place in cognitive science, such as the use of the theory of dynamical systems, but in general she confronts issues with confidence and keen insight.

The second volume begins with a very provocative question, one that has plagued the field of artificial intelligence since its beginnings in the 1950's. The author asks, "when is a program not a program", and this is definitely a question whose typical answer is responsible for much of the lack of confidence in progress in artificial intelligence. The general prejudice in the cognitive science community is that a thought process or reasoning pattern cannot be viewed as a "program" because the latter is only to be taken as a collection of "instructions" that is to be run on a computer and will give the same answer when acting on the same information presented to it. The problem was then to distinguish between a "program" and an "intelligent" program, even though the designation of "intelligent" was (and still is to a great extent) extremely vague. The lack of a precise definition of intelligence would naturally lead to controversy regarding the identity of the first "intelligent" program, and the author discusses some of this controversy. The `Logic Theorist' program and the `Selfride-Dinneen' program are discussed as early candidates for being the first "AI programs" but the author points to some of the early skepticism as to their status as being intelligent. One of these continues to this day, namely that an "intelligent" program has to be highly complex, or "sexy" to use the author's terminology. But complexity, if viewed from the standpoint of the history of artificial intelligence, is in the eye of the beholder, and programs once deemed intelligent, like the ones behind checkers and chess, are now viewed as mere "programs." Such trivialization of intelligent "programs" could be avoided if they were designated, in full recognition of their status in cognitive science as "reasoning patterns" or "thought processes" rather than programs or "algorithms", with the latter names being more appropriate for a computer science context.

Many more of these peculiarities in the history of AI/cognitive science are discussed in Volume 2, such as the deliberate "underselling" of an intelligent technology so as not to instill fear into prospective customers who feel threatened by intelligent machines. As someone who has worked in the trenches of "technological AI" (as the author calls it in the book), this reviewer can report many such stories by vendors who do not want to "frighten" potential customers away by designating their product as "intelligent". Instead they usually play it down, just as author reports the salesman of the IBM 704 did back in 1979. Even highly educated customers, very familiar with modern technology, can view intelligent machines as disquieting, or even threatening, and are frequently hesitant to deploy them in a production environment. The Hollywood Skynet meme has diffused quickly and effectively throughout the world, stymieing the practical application of artificial intelligence.And the bar keeps getting raised for judging whether a machine is indeed intelligent. Chess used to be the holy grail, but now chess "programs" highly competitive with human players can be purchased cheaply at stores found in most neighborhoods throughout the country. Even the developers and researchers themselves, including the author, have dismissed progress as being either "trivial" or part of "technological AI", and predict "real" intelligent machines to be a few hundred years away.

The author also discusses in some detail the petty squabbles between research groups in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Some readers may feel that this kind of discussion should be left out of the book. To omit it though would be a mistake, since the book is an historical account and readers should have an understanding of the degree to which even individuals deemed to be highly intelligent can engage in conduct that borders on triviality or blatant irrationality. Such dialog and behavior is sometimes intermixed with brilliant developments, proving indeed that good work can be done even if one is embedded in a contentious, degrading atmosphere.

A particularly valuable part of Volume 2 is the author's discussions on research into systems for the representation of semantic information. Sometimes called `semantic networks' at the present time, the goal is to be able to represent semantic content for many different domains or subject areas. Semantic networks would allow a machine to reason across these domains without any external intervention or tuning. The author discusses the work of M.R. Quillian in the early 1960's on semantic representations, which used what was called `localist connectionism' at the time. Work on the `semantic Web' is a good example of current research into semantic representations. The ability of a machine to deal with many knowledge domains is also of great interest to those researchers who are currently attempting to design machines with artificial "general" intelligence (GAI). A modest (but impressive) hint of how this could be done is given by the HACKER "program" which the author discusses in this volume. HACKER could engage in "self-criticism", and this ability is taken to be a sign of what the author has labeled as `Piagetian error-led constructive learning'. Enthusiasts for GAI have pointed to the need for this type of learning. The current enthusiasm for GAI was also taking place in the 1960's, as the author reports in this volume, but under pressure from "experts" was abandoned in the 1970's.

There are some annoying parts of this volume, but these are few. One is the author's continued reference to the "general public", apparently to distinguish them from members of academia or research labs, the latter two groups being the only ones qualified it seems to assess progress in cognitive science. Another is the inclusion of philosophical debate on artificial intelligence, with an entire chapter devoted to it. Certainly such an inclusion would be deemed appropriate since this volume is an historical overview, but such debate has only slowed the progress of artificial intelligence. It is the opinion of this reviewer that all who are involved in this kind of research should declare a moratorium on philosophical debate and get on with the design and construction of intelligent machines. The philosophers should be left alone to construct the gigantic, rhetorical conceptual spaces they usually get lost in. And lastly, the author seems to restrain any enthusiasm she has for the subject, with the belief that such enthusiasm comes from only those who want to advertise themselves or who do not have the appropriate background to understand the subject. Certainly the press has exaggerated some of the claims of progress in artificial intelligence, but on the other hand real progress has been made, and great enthusiasm should be expressed for this progress. Sadly, many academics seem to be too guarded and self-restrained to participate in such joyous emotions, judging it to be "unprofessional" to do so. There are exceptions to this though in the book, such as the author's refreshingly unbridled enthusiasm for the SHRDLU "program" of T. Winograd.

As the author details in this volume, and as can be gathered from conversations with specialists, AI has been subjected to harsh criticism, some of this justified but most frequently not. One of these criticisms was leveled by Drew McDermott, and is outlined by the author in this volume. McDermott's criticism goes at the heart of many of the problems in the acceptance of machines as exhibiting intelligence. The issue is the words that are used to describe processes that are occurring in machines. McDermott charges AI researchers with "self-deception" when they use "wishful mnemonics" to describe what he says are just "procedures" or "data structures." The author gives a few examples, one being when a procedure is called GOAL instead of something like G0034, the former name leading one to believe that a `real' goal has been achieved. McDermott does not want to think outside of the computer science paradigm, and as long as AI researchers listen to his admonitions and stay within this paradigm, they will never accept machines as being intelligent, no matter what the capabilities of these machines. Every process occurring in these machines will always be viewed as a procedure, and every knowledge or semantic representation will be viewed as a data structure. Machines will be thought of as entities that run programs, with these programs mere manipulations of data structures, even if the machine can beat every human at chess or backgammon, even if it can produce and prove original theorems in pure mathematics, or even if it can self-navigate on Mars and evaluate its surroundings with scientific curiosity.

But the views of McDermott are narrow and myopic, and can easily be stood on their head. One could for example speak of "accurate mnemonics" to describe what is going on in machines when they engage for example in learning or discovery. There is no reason why AI researchers should not call a "program" intelligent if it is indeed the case that it is. The issue is what kind of processes in a machine we should label as intelligent, and when we decide to do so it will be based on an understanding of learning and intelligence, and not on a rigid and unproductive adherence to the computer science paradigm, as McDermott insists upon. It would be proper for example to call a procedure or algorithm a `reasoning pattern', or hardware a `cognitive structure', or even memory (volatile or not) as a `knowledge base.' When this is done, one can indeed distinguish intelligent machines from non-intelligent ones, and it becomes natural to refer to "machines that can think." There is no doubt that some machines throughout the history of AI have been deemed "intelligent" when they indeed were not. But there are more that have been viewed as non-intelligent when they were (and are), if viewed from a reasonable framework. Many more will make their appearance in years to come, illustrating with precision the strict equality between mind and machine.

Review of Volume 1:

A detailed book on the history of a subject in science or technology is always helpful, since it provides insight that is usually not obtainable from formal papers and monographs. The latter are written for experts, and so no attempt is made to explain the subject matter in a way that is transparent to a reader that is outside the field. In addition, these works are usually guarded, meaning that the authors are being very careful not to explain themselves too well, and thus make a potential critic's job much easier. The author of this massive two-volume set has given the reader a history of the subject from the standpoint of an insider and recognized contributor to the field. For experts in cognitive science, much of it will be familiar, and no doubt controversial, as they may feel some of their ideas have been misrepresented. For non-experts (such as this reviewer), there is no way to tell if the volumes really respect the details of what has happened, and therefore such readers must view its contents as more tentative than usual. The author though is careful to note very early on that the volumes represent her point of view on cognitive science "as a whole", and this serves to put the skeptical reader more at ease.

The "man as machine" paradigm is traced back to the ancient Greeks in Volume 1, but the author cautions that their attitudes about this are much different (and its fair to say much less ambitious) than those held today. Since World War II, the belief has been that not only is it proper to view humans as machines, but that it is possible, however challenging, to construct non-human entities or "machines" that have minds. The repugnance of the ancient Greeks to practical work would have discouraged any attempts to build such machines. The author outlines various other attempts to build "automata" after the time of the Greeks, one of them a rudimentary android that was constructed in the twelfth century, another a "talking head" that was, interestingly, destroyed by none other than Thomas Aquinas, who apparently believed it to be "devilish" in origin. Rene Descartes of course is the most virile of the agents of the "man as machine" meme, and the author naturally devotes much space in this volume to his contributions in this regard.

The Cartesian view has had a large following, and there were sometimes horrifying consequences of this. The author includes an example of this: the belief that animals cannot feel pain and with animals being dissected while still alive. And the Descartes view of consciousness, briefly discussed in this volume, is finally being scrutinized scientifically using brain scanning techniques. It was not until very recently that the scientific community has viewed consciousness as a subject worthy of investigation, and the study of consciousness, particularly from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, will certainly shed light on Descartes dualism, with its arbitrary division of mind from matter. The artificial intelligence community has also been stymied by a difficult problem that is brought out in the book by the inclusion of a passage from Descartes. This problem revolves around the construction of a machine that can think/reason in any domain and not merely be a collection of modules each of which is designed for a specific domain. Descartes thought this to be impossible, as the included passage clearly indicates. Descartes thought reason to be a "universal tool" that can work in "all kinds of circumstances", whereas man-made implements or machines "need a special arrangement for each special action." Artificial general intelligence or AGI as it is now called, has as its goal the construction of such a "universal tool."

The author's view on the role of Charles Babbage in the mind-as-machine paradigm goes against the widely held view because she believes that his role was irrelevant. She devotes many pages to the support of her view, and her arguments are convincing to a large degree. The most interesting part of her discussion though is that she compares the hype associated to Babbage with the "techno-hype" she imputs to the artificial intelligence community in the 1970s and late 1980s. She believes this over-selling of artificial intelligence was counterproductive for this type of research but there is another possible interpretation of this behavior, namely that it was a way that the researchers produced confidence in themselves to tackle the challenging problems of AI. The sheer magnitude of the difficulty of these problems requires individuals with extreme confidence, without of course engaging in confabulation. In relation to this discussion, and giving much more insight into attitudes about AI, both from the "public" and the AI researchers themselves, is the passage due to Lady Lovelace on the 'Analytical Engine' of Babbage. In this passage, Lovelace warns against any possible exaggerations regarding the powers of the Analytical Engine, and remarks that when considering a subject that is novel, there is a temptation to exaggerate what is already interesting and to undervalue what is really true after it becomes known what is really possible or known. The history of AI has been plagued with this rollercoaster ride of confidence and undervaluation, and this has been pointed out by other AI researchers/historians such as Donald Michie and Pamela McCorduck. This pattern of initial enthusiasm and hype surrounding an advance in AI, followed eventually by its understanding and then its eventual rejection as anything significant, could be called the 'Lovelace-Michie-McCorduck effect' in recognition of the three individuals who wrote of it.

It is also very interesting to compare what is known and can be accomplished now with what one reads in this volume as done or accomplished in the last four hundred years. One example are the Vaucanson automatic musicians of the eighteenth century as compared to the machine musicians of today, the latter of which can not only compose original music but also serve as neuroscientific models of musical appreciation. Another concerns the early skepticism regarding the possibility of constructing robots that simulate various human bodily movements. This skepticism should be compared to the artificial muscle technology of today. Still another is the work of Ramon y Cajal on "neurones" as compared with what is done in computational neuroscience today.

In discussions and debates on the mind-as-machine paradigm and artificial intelligence, one usually encounters statements regarding the power of "intuition" over computational or logical reasoning patterns, or at least beliefs, usually strongly expressed, that the human mind has the ability to process information that cannot be viewed as computational. It would of course be surprising that a book on the history of cognitive science and the 'mind-as-machine' paradigm would not include a discussion of these debates. The author includes such a discussion, with emphasis on the work of Alan Turing, wherein she includes an interesting passage that indicates that Turing himself believed that intuition cannot entirely be avoided. Interestingly though, Turing pointed to the need for "non-constructive" systems of logic that allow one to differentiate between when a step in a proof is the result of intuition and when it is purely formal. And the 'O-machines' of Turing are entities that have mathematical "powers" that are not based on Turing computation. The belief that intuition is not only necessary but more powerful than computational processes is still very entrenched not only in the scientific community but outside of it. It would seem that the majority of humans cannot believe that mental processes are solely mechanical/computational, but no explicit tests illustrating the "power" of intuition over computation have been conducted to date. Intuition thus remains a concept with no scientific foundation as of yet. ... Read more

Book Description

Alchemy can't be science--common sense tells us as much. But perhaps common sense is not the best measure of what science is, or was. In this book, Bruce Moran looks past contemporary assumptions and prejudices to determine what alchemists were actually doing in the context of early modern science. Examining the ways alchemy and chemistry were studied and practiced between 1400 and 1700, he shows how these approaches influenced their respective practitioners' ideas about nature and shaped their inquiries into the workings of the natural world. His work sets up a dialogue between what historians have usually presented as separate spheres; here we see how alchemists and early chemists exchanged ideas and methods and in fact shared a territory between their two disciplines.

Distilling Knowledge suggests that scientific revolution may wear a different appearance in different cultural contexts. The metaphor of the Scientific Revolution, Moran argues, can be expanded to make sense of alchemy and other so-called pseudo-sciences--by including a new framework in which "process can count as an object, in which making leads to learning, and in which the messiness of conflict leads to discernment." Seen on its own terms, alchemy can stand within the bounds of demonstrative science.

Customer Reviews (2)

the cutting edge of historical scholarship
Bruce Moran is a heavy in the world of academic alchemical studies, and this book is exactly what the history of science needs--after having neglected the serious study of alchemy for too long for the wrong reasons. Of all his books, this is the best place to start for somebody with a general interest in the subject, or those who wish to better understand the true place of alchemy in the development of modern scientific method, as well as the history of chemistry. This book contains a powerful argument for the relevance of alchemy in the development of the modern conception of what scientific knowledge should be understood as consisting of, and should dispel for anyone with "eyes to see" the negative rumours about alchemy being foolish superstition. Alchemy was early modern matter theory, deeply concerned with many of the issues modern scientists can't fail to neglect. Now historians of science cannot neglect them either.

Like a breathe offresh air
After reading several popular books on alchemy, it was a relief to find this scholarly, yet easy-to-read, history. Moran sets alchemy in context through time and shows how it fits into the scientific revolution. All the major alchemical heavies are there--including some fascinating material on Paracelsus. Also discusses such things as the evolution of the alchemy/chemistry teaching laboratory. Really a satisfying and fascinating read. ... Read more

Book Description

A History of Arabic Astronomy is a comprehensive survey of Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century based on recent manuscript discoveries. George Saliba argues that the medieval period, often called a period of decline in Islamic intellectual history, was scientifically speaking, a very productive period in which astronomical theories of the highest order were produced.

Based on the most recent manuscript discoveries, this book broadly surveys developments in Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth.Taken together, the primary texts and essays assembled in this book reverse traditional beliefs about the rise and fall of Arabic science, demonstrating how the traditional "age of decline" in Arabic science was indeed a "Golden Age" as far as astronomy was concerned.

Some of the techniques and mathematical theorems developed during this period were identical to those which were employed by Copernicus in developing his own non-Ptolemaic astronomy.Significantly, this volume will shed much-needed light on the conditions under which such theories were developed in medieval Islam.Itclearly demonstrates the distinction that was drawn between astronomical activities and astrological ones, and reveals, contrary to common perceptions about medieval Islam, the accommodation that was obviously reached between religion and astronomy, and the degree to which astronomical planetary theories were supported, and at times even financed, by the religious community itself.This in stark contrast to the systematic attacks leveled by the same religious community against astrology.

To students of European intellectual history, the book reveals the technical relationship between the astronomy of the Arabs and that of Copernicus.Saliba's definitive work will be of particular interest to historians of Arabic science as well as to historians of medieval and Renaissance European science.