Postmodern Philosophy and the Scientific Turn

Dorothea E. Olkowski (Author)

9780253001191

Paperback / softback, published 23 April 2012

248 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.386 kg

This book is clear, but that does not mean it is not complex. Nevertheless, the struggle is rewarding; I highly recommend it.

What can come of a scientific engagement with postmodern philosophy? Some scientists have claimed that the social sciences and humanities have nothing to contribute, except perhaps peripherally, to their research. Dorothea E. Olkowski shows that the historic link between science and philosophy, mathematics itself, plays a fundamental role in the development of the worldviews that drive both fields. Focusing on language, its expression of worldview and usage, she develops a phenomenological account of human thought and action to explicate the role of philosophy in the sciences. Olkowski proposes a model of phenomenology, both scientific and philosophical, that helps make sense of reality and composes an ethics for dealing with unpredictability in our world.

Preface: Postmodern Philosophy
Acknowledgements
1. Nature Calls: Scientific Worldviews and the Sokal Hoax
2. The Natural Contract and the Archimedean World View
3. Semi-Free: Thermodynamics, Probability and the New Worldview
4. Burning Man: The Influence of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics and the Science of Flow
5. Philosophy's Extra-scientific Messages
6. Love's Ontology: Ethics Beyond the Limits of Classical Science
Notes
Bibliography
Index