Libros de Filosofía de la ciencia, página 2 de 68

Este diccionario propone pensar la bioética como campo de entrecruzamiento de diversas disciplinas y visiones para una reflexión crítica sobre la vida y el vivir en América Latina. Con el desarrollo científico y tecnológico en las ciencias de la vida y la salud, las dificultades e imposibilidades de grandes grupos de población para alcanzar el debido estándar en su salud y calidad de vida, el impacto del deterioro del medio ambiente, y los cambios sociales y culturales de la nueva globalización, la bioética se ha constituido en uno de los campos interdisciplinarios más activos de reflexión y acción a escala mundial. En la perspectiva de 180 especialistas y expertos de la región, en este Diccionario concurren la filosofía y las humanidades, el derecho y las ciencias sociales, la medicina y las ciencias de la vida y la salud, la literatura y la cultura, y el pensamiento político de la comunidad. Así se tiene una opción amplia y plural en la construcción participativa de un campo que no se limita a un grupo reducido de expertos. El núcleo de interés común, sin embargo, son los aspectos éticos y morales, de valores, principios y virtudes, que problematizan la vida y la identidad, la integridad y la libertad, la atención y el bienestar de las personas y comunidades de la región en el marco del debido respeto a los derechos humanos. Interesan estos problemas porque abren interrogantes sobre el origen, el desarrollo y el final de la vida, y sobre las condiciones para vivir un proyecto de vida armónico y en justicia. Es esa visión compleja y a la vez cercana de la moral y el vivir regional la que se ha querido dar al lector a través de esta obra.

What makes a living system a living system? What kind of biological phenomenon is the phenomenon of cognition? These two questions have been frequently considered, but, in this volume, the authors consider them as concrete biological questions. Their analysis is bold and provocative, for the authors have constructed a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as objects of observation and description, nor even as interacting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to themselves. The consequence of their investigations and of their living systems as self-making, self-referring autonomous unities, is that they discovered that the two questions have a common answer: living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. The result of their investigations is a completely new perspective of biological (human) phenomena. During the investigations, it was found that a complete linguistic description pertaining to the a organization of the livinga (TM) was lacking and, in fact, was hampering the reporting of results. Hence, the authors have coined the word a autopoiesisa (TM) to replace the expression a circular organizationa (TM). Autopoiesis conveys, by itself, the central feature of the organization of the living, which is autonomy.

Abrumadoramente erudita, esta lectura crítica de la conflictiva historia de la relación entre la ciencia y la Iglesia católica está destinada a ser la obra de referencia en su campo.

What are currently the most dynamic areas in the life sciences and where do future challenges lie? In this carefully selected collection of essays, world-class scientists - all of them winners of the Nobel, Lasker or Wolf prizes - describe groundbreaking developments in their particular area of expertise. The selection of topics is as diverse and colorful as life itself: Will advances in molecular biology allow us to learn all about the cell''s internal workings? What are the prospects of molecular medicine for the treatment of cancer and other diseases? How will agriculture develop in the era of transgenic plants? How will life on our planet be transformed as the human population continues to increase? Founded on hard facts as well as on scientific intuition, each chapter highlights a different aspect of life science and is completely self-contained. It is a fascinating reading for anyone with an active interest in the life sciences, as well as ideal for teaching purposes.

The common language of genius: Eureka! While the roads that lead to breakthrough scientific discovery can be as varied and complex as the human mind, the moment of insight for all scientists is remarkably similar. The word "eureka!", attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, has come to express that universal moment of joy, wonder-and even shock-at discovering something entirely new. In this collection of twelve scientific stories, Leslie Alan Horvitz describes the drama of sudden insight as experienced by a dozen distinct personalities, detailing discoveries both well known and obscure. From Darwin, Einstein, and the team of Watson and Crick to such lesser known luminaries as fractal creator Mandelbrot and periodic table mastermind Dmitri Medellev, Eureka! perfectly illustrates Louis Pasteur''s quip that chance favors the prepared mind. The book also describes how amateur scientist Joseph Priestley stumbled onto the existence of oxygen in the eighteenth century and how television pioneer Philo Farnsworth developed his idea for a TV screen while plowing his family''s Idaho farm.

The rich civilizations of ancient China and Greece built sciences of comparable sophisticationeach based on different foundations of concept, method, and organization. In this engrossing book, two world-renowned scholars compare the cosmology, science, and medicine of China and Greece between 400 B.C. and A.D. 200, casting new light not only on the two civilizations but also on the evolving character of science. Sir Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin investigate the differences between the thinkers in the two civilizations: what motivated them, how they understood the cosmos and the human body, how they were educated, how they made a living, and whom they argued with and why. The authors new method integrally compares social, political, and intellectual patterns and connections, demonstrating how all affected and were affected by ideas about cosmology and the physical world. They relate conceptual differences in China and Greece to the diverse ways that intellectuals in the two civilizations earned their living, interacted with fellow inquirers, and were involved with structures of authority. By A.D. 200 the distinctive scientific strengths of both China and Greece showed equal potential for theory and practice. Lloyd and Sivin argue that modern science evolved not out of the Greek tradition alone but from the strengths of China, Greece, India, Islam, and other civilizations, which converged first in the Muslim world and then in Renaissance Europe. Sir Geoffrey Lloyd is emeritus professor of ancient philosophy and science at the University of Cambridge. Nathan Sivin is professor of Chinese culture and of the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Durante el siglo XX la filosofía de las ciencias experimentó un auge marcado por dos tendencias: una, el análisis lógico y semántico emprendido por el Círculo de Viena; otra, el acercamiento descriptivo que, con la esperanza de conferir unidad y validez, fue muy sensible a las rupturas históricas y a las especialidades de cada disciplina científica. En la actualidad, impulsada tanto por la evolución del conocimiento científico como por su dinámica interna, la filosofía de las ciencias redescubre los vínculos entre la vida científica y otras actividades humanas, así como su propia dependencia ante cuestiones metafísicas y ontológicas, apuntando esencialmente a la reflexión sobre las disciplinas particulares y no a la búsqueda de una metodología general. El funcionamiento del mundo y la acción humana vuelven necesaria la articulación entre las diversas disciplinas, tanto en el plano teórico como en el práctico. Tal es el propósito de esta obra: comprender a la vez la unidad de la naturaleza y la pluralidad de las ciencias, llevando al lector al corazón de algunos de los problemas actuales más sobresalientes.

"This excellent work collects a judiciously chosen group of writings on what are universally regarded as five of the most significant physical theories in the history of science. Each of the selections serves to place the development and significance of the physical theory in its historical setting ...