The humanistic background of science / Philipp Frank ; edited by George A. Reisch and Adam Tamas Tuboly.

ISBN:

9781438485539

Title:

Author:

Frank, Philipp, 1884-1966, author.

Personal Author:

Frank, Philipp, 1884-1966, author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 384 pages) : illustrations.

Series:

SUNY series in American philosophy and cultural thought

SUNY series in American philosophy and cultural thought.

Contents:

Philipp Frank: A crusader for scientific philosophy -- Part I. Introduction: Science, facts, and values -- The longing for a humanization of science -- Metaphysical interpretations of science -- The sociology of metaphysical interpretations -- Philosophy of science and political ideology -- Sociology of science and the search for a democratic metaphysics -- Part II. Scholastic philosophy and Thomism -- The physical universe as a symbol -- Union, divorce, and reunion between science and philosophy -- Science, democracy, and the new wave of positivism -- The Vienna circle : Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, and Otto Neurath -- Pragmatism -- Mechanistic and dialectical materialism -- The laws and politics of dialectical materialism -- Conclusion: Einstein's philosophy of science.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Frank, Philipp, 1884-1966.

Frank, Philipp, 1884-1966

Subject Term:

Science -- Philosophy.

Science and the humanities.

Sciences et sciences humaines.

Science and the humanities

Science -- Philosophy

Added Author:

Reisch, George A., 1962-

Tuboly, Adam Tamas,

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?url=http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=2717548

Publication Date:

2021

Publication Information:

Albany :

State University of New York Press,

[2021]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
501 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Philipp Frank (1884-1966) was an influential philosopher of science, public intellectual, and Harvard educator whose last book, The Humanistic Background of Science , is finally available. Never published in his lifetime, this original manuscript has been edited and introduced to highlight Frank's remarkable but little-known insights about the nature of modern science--insights that rival those of Karl Popper and Frank's colleagues Thomas Kuhn and James Bryant Conant. As a leading exponent of logical empiricism and a member of the famous Vienna Circle, Frank intended his book to provide an accessible, engaging introduction to the philosophy of science and its cultural significance. The book is steadfastly true to science; to aspirations of peace, unity, and human flourishing after World War II; and to the pragmatic philosophies of Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey that Frank embraced in his new American home. Amidst the many recent surveys and retrospective analyses of midcentury philosophy of science, The Humanistic Background of Science offers an original, first-hand view of Frank's post-European life and of intellectual dramas then unfolding in Chicago, New York City, and Boston.

Author Notes

George A. Reisch is managing editor of The Monist and the author of The Politics of Paradigms: Thomas S. Kuhn, James B. Conant, and the Cold War "Struggle for Men's Minds" , also published by SUNY Press. Adam Tamas Tuboly is postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for Humanities, and research fellow at the Institute of Transdisciplinary Discoveries, Medical School, University of Pécs.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Reisch (Northwestern Univ.) and Tuboly (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) present a previously unpublished philosophical opus by the physicist and logical positivist Philipp Frank, member of the Vienna Circle, and friend and biographer of Einstein (see Einstein: His Life and Times, translated by George Rosen, 2nd ed., 2002 ) who in 1938 immigrated to the US and finished his career at Harvard University. An introduction by the editors provides a detailed account of Frank's life--his years in Prague (1912--1938) and major intellectual collaborations within the German Physical Society--finally situating his work within the intellectual and institutional context of American philosophy during the years following WW II. Frank's largely forgotten manuscript (discovered in a desk drawer after his retirement) attempts to reconcile positivist philosophy with postwar--in other words post-nuclear--demands to integrate the philosophy of science with a robust understanding of human values. American pragmatism influenced Frank, and his treatise offers a fascinating historical window on the intellectual currents of mid-century American philosophy. Thanks to the archival research of these editors, the work is now available and likely to be of particular interest to historians of science and philosophy. Because Frank's manuscript lay unpublished and never became an influential text, its greatest appeal will be to readers with strong historical interests. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. General readers. --Joseph D. Martin, Durham University