Natural Sciences and Human Thought [Paperback]

Leaving aside for once all utilitarian considerations, this book attempts to demonstrate the role and influence of the natural sciences in the development of human thought and in shaping the way in which we perceive the world. This seems to be particularly necessary in the present day and age, in view of the fact that a large section of the public is scarcely aware of the great cultural contribution that the natural sciences make towards moulding our conception of the world and scarcely acknowledges their function in helping us to find our bearings in a world that is becoming increasingly complex.Leaving aside for once all utilitarian considerations, this book attempts to demonstrate the role and influence of the natural sciences in the development of human thought and in shaping the way in which we perceive the world. This seems to be particularly necessary in the present day and age, in view of the fact that a large section of the public is scarcely aware of the great cultural contribution that the natural sciences make towards moulding our conception of the world and scarcely acknowledges their function in helping us to find our bearings in a world that is becoming increasingly complex.Historical and Philosophical Aspects of the Unity of Physics: Scientific Progress by Unification.- The Emergence of Theoretical Physics in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century.- Physics and Human Thought.- Physics as a Cultural Science.- Time Flow.- Times Arrow.- Between Pure and Applied Mathematics.- Concepts of Causality in Pre-Socratic Philosophy.- The Rationality of Reductionism.- The Risk of Heuristics.- Irreversibility and Self-Organization.- Structural Basis of Serine Protease Action: The Fourth Dimension.- Can the Concept of Evolution Tell Us Who We Are?.- Changes of Paradigms in Biology and Medicine.- The Relationship Between Medicine and Natural Sciences During the Twentieth Century Aspects of the Theory of Science.- The Artificial Intelligence Approach to Modellingló-