On Knowing - The Natural Sciences

by McKeon, Richard; Owen, David B.; McKeon, Zahava K.

• ISBN13: 9780226560274
• ISBN10: 0226560279
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Well before the current age of discourse, deconstruction, and multiculturalism, Richard McKeon propounded a philosophy of pluralism showing how "facts" and "values" are dependent on diverse ways of reading texts. This book is a transcription of an entire course, including both lectures and student discussions, taught by McKeon. As such, it provides an exciting introduction to McKeon's conception of pluralism, a central aspect of neo-Pragmatism, while demonstrating how pluralism works in a classroom setting. In his lectures, McKeon outlines the entire history of Western thinking on the sciences. Treating the central concepts of motion, space, time, and cause, he traces modern intellectual debates back to the ancient Greeks, notably Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, and the Sophists. As he brings the story of Western science up to the twentieth century, he uses his fabled semantic schema (reproduced here for the first time) to uncover new ideas and observations about cosmology, mechanics, dynamics, and other aspects of physical science. Illustrating the broad historical sweep of the lectures are a series of discussions which give detail to the course's intellectual framework. These discussions of Plato, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell are perhaps the first published rendition of a philosopher in literal dialogue with his students. Led by McKeon's pointed questioning, the discussions reveal the difficulties and possibilities of learning to engage in serious intellectual communication.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
Foreword	xi
An Introduction to Philosophic Problems	1	(11)
Philosophic Problems in the Natural Sciences	12	(48)
Discussion. Plato, Timaeus
27d-32c	25	(14)
32c-37c and 57d-59d	39	(14)
88c-90d	53	(7)
Motion: Method	60	(12)
Motion: Method (Part 2) and Principle	72	(46)
Discussion. Aristotle, Physics
Book II, Chapter 1	84	(7)
Book II, Chapter 2: Book III, Chapter 1	91	(13)
Book III, Chapter 2-3; Book V, Chapters 1-3	104	(14)
Motion: Interpretation	118	(67)
Discussion, Galileo, Two New Sciences
Third Day: Uniform Motion	130	(14)
Third Day: Naturally Accelerated Motion	144	(14)
Third Day: Naturally Accelerated Motion	158	(14)
Third Day: Naturally Accelerated Motion	172	(13)
Motion: Selection	185	(9)
Motion: Selection (Part 2)	194	(87)
Discussion, Newton, Principia Mathematica
Preface to First Edition; Book 1: Definitions I-II	208	(13)
Book I: Definitions III-VII	221	(15)
Book I: Definitions VI-VIII and Scholium	236	(15)
Book I: Laws of Motion and Corollaries I-VI	251	(16)
Book I: Corollary VI, Proposition LXXVI; Book III: Propositions IV and VI, Optics: Queries 28--31	267	(14)
Space: Time: Method, Interpretation, and Principle	281	(11)
Time: Method, Interpretation, and Principle	292	(38)
Discussion, Maxwell, Matter and Motion
Preface; Chapter I: Sections 1-12	304	(13)
Chapter I: Sections 13-18	317	(13)
Summary: Interpretation, Method, and Principle	330	(27)
Discussion. Review	342	(15)
Appendix A: Class Schedule	357	(2)
Appendix B: Selected Lecture Notes on Necessity, Probability, and Nature	359	(3)
Appendix C: Selected Lecture Notes on Democritus and the Sophists	362	(2)
Appendix D: Selected Lecture Notes on Cause	364	(4)
Appendix E: Complete Lecture Notes for Lecture 10	368	(5)
Appendix F: Discussion Notes For Einstein	373	(5)
Appendix G: Final Examinations	378	(2)
Appendix H: Schema of Philosophic Semantics	380	(1)
Notes	381	(14)
Index	395