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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > History of science
The goal of this book is to introduce a reader to a new philosophy
of teaching and learning physics - Investigative Science Learning
Environment, or ISLE (pronounced as a small island). ISLE is an
example of an "intentional" approach to curriculum design and
learning activities (MacMillan and Garrison 1988 A Logical Theory
of Teaching: Erotetics and Intentionality). Intentionality means
that the process through which the learning occurs is as crucial
for learning as the final outcome or learned content. In ISLE, the
process through which students learn mirrors the practice of
physics.
In this incisive analysis of academic psychology, Gregg Henriques
examines the fragmented nature of the discipline and explains why
the field has had enormous difficulty specifying its subject matter
and how this has limited its ability to advance our knowledge of
the human condition. He traces the origins of the problem of
psychology to a deep and profound gap in our knowledge systems that
emerged in the context of the scientific Enlightenment. To address
this problem, this book introduces a new vision for scientific
psychology called mental behaviorism. The approach is anchored to a
comprehensive metapsychological framework that integrates insights
from physics and cosmic evolution, neuroscience, the cognitive and
behavioral sciences, developmental and complex adaptive systems
theory, attachment theory, phenomenology, and social
constructionist perspectives and is well grounded in the philosophy
of science. Building on more than twenty years of work in
theoretical psychology and drawing on a wide range of literature,
Professor Henriques shows how this new approach to scientific
knowledge fills in the gaps of our current understanding of
psychology and can allow us to develop a more holistic and
sophisticated way to understand animal and human mental behavioral
patterns. This work will especially appeal to students and scholars
of general psychology and theoretical psychology, as well as to
historians and philosophers of science.
Exploring a topic at the intersection of science, philosophy and
literature in the late eighteenth century Dahlia Porter traces the
history of induction as a writerly practice - as a procedure for
manipulating textual evidence by selective quotation - from its
roots in Francis Bacon's experimental philosophy to its
pervasiveness across Enlightenment moral philosophy, aesthetics,
literary criticism, and literature itself. Porter brings this
history to bear on an omnipresent feature of Romantic-era
literature, its mixtures of verse and prose. Combining analyses of
printed books and manuscripts with recent scholarship in the
history of science, she elucidates the compositional practices and
formal dilemmas of Erasmus Darwin, Robert Southey, Charlotte Smith,
Maria Edgeworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In doing so she
re-examines the relationship between Romantic literature and
eighteenth-century empiricist science, philosophy, and forms of art
and explores how Romantic writers engaged with the ideas of
Enlightenment empiricism in their work.
Trees and tree products have long been central to human life and
culture, taking on intensified significance during the long
eighteenth century. As basic raw material they were vital economic
resources, objects of international diplomatic and commercial
exchange, and key features in local economies. In an age of ongoing
deforestation, both individuals and public entities grappled with
the complex issues of how and why trees mattered. In this
interdisciplinary volume, contributors build on recent research in
environmental history, literary and material culture, and
postcolonial studies to develop new readings of the ways trees were
valued in the eighteenth century. They trace changes in early
modern theories of resource management and ecology across European
and North American landscapes, and show how different and sometimes
contradictory practices were caught up in shifting conceptions of
nature, social identity, physical health and moral wellbeing. In
its innovative and thought-provoking exploration of man's
relationship with trees, Invaluable trees: cultures of nature, 1660
-1830 argues for new ways of understanding the long eighteenth
century and its values, and helps re-frame the environmental
challenges of our own time.
This book uses art photography as a point of departure for learning
about physics, while also using physics as a point of departure for
asking fundamental questions about the nature of photography as an
art. Although not a how-to manual, the topics center around
hands-on applications, sometimes illustrated by photographic
processes that are inexpensive and easily accessible to students
(including a versatile new process developed by the author, and
first described in print in this series). A central theme is the
connection between the physical interaction of light and matter on
the one hand, and the artistry of the photographic processes and
their results on the other. This is the third volume in this
three-part series that uses art photography as a point of departure
for learning about physics, while also using physics as a point of
departure for asking fundamental questions about the nature of
photography as an art. It focuses on the physics and chemistry of
photographic light-sensitive materials, as well as the human
retina. It also considers the fundamental nature of digital
photography and its relationship to the analog photography that
preceded it.
This book offers the first in-depth investigation into the
relationship between the National Birth Control Association, later
the Family Planning Association, and contraceptive science and
technology in the pre-Pill era. It explores the Association's role
in designing and supporting scientific research, employment of
scientists, engagement with manufacturers and pharmaceutical
companies, and use of its facilities, patients, staff, medical,
scientific, and political networks to standardise and guarantee
contraceptive technology it prescribed and produced. By taking a
micro-history approach to the archives of the Association, this
book highlights the importance of this organisation to the history
of science, technology, and medicine in twentieth-century Britain.
It examines the Association's participation within Western family
planning networks, working particularly closely with its American
counterparts to develop chemical and biological means of testing
contraception for efficacy, quality, and safety.
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