From the earliest use of fire to forge iron tools to the medieval alchemists' search for the philosopher's stone, the secrets of the elements have been pursued by human civilization. But, as the authors of this concise history remind us, "disciplines like physics and chemistry have not existed since the beginning of time; they have been built up little by little, and that does not happen without difficulties." Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Isabelle Stengers present chemistry as a science in search of an identity, or rather as a science whose identity has changed in response to its...
From the earliest use of fire to forge iron tools to the medieval alchemists' search for the philosopher's stone, the secrets of the elements have ...
Using the law of thermodynamics, one of today's most penetrating and celebrated thinkers sets out to explain the consequences of nonlinear dynamics (or chaos theory) for philosophy and science. Concerned with the interplay between science, society, and power, Isabelle Stengers offers a unique perspective on the power of scientific theories to modify society, and vice versa. 9 diagrams.
Using the law of thermodynamics, one of today's most penetrating and celebrated thinkers sets out to explain the consequences of nonlinear dynamics (o...
Taking seriously the argument that things have politics, Political Matter seeks to develop a fully materialist theory of politics, one that opens new possibilities for imagining the relationship between scientific and political practices. The contributors assert that without such a theory the profusion of complex materials with and through which we live-plastic bags, smart cars, and long-life lightbulbs, for example-too often leaves us oscillating between fearful repudiation and glib celebration. Exploring the frictions that come from linking the work of scholars in science and...
Taking seriously the argument that things have politics, Political Matter seeks to develop a fully materialist theory of politics, one that ope...
Originally published in French in seven volumes, Cosmopolitics investigates the role and authority of the sciences in modern societies and challenges their claims to objectivity, rationality, and truth. Cosmopolitics II includes the first English-language translations of the last four books: Quantum Mechanics: The End of the Dream, In the Name of the Arrow of Time: Prigogine's Challenge, Life and Artifice: The Faces of Emergence, and The Curse of Tolerance.
Arguing for an "ecology of practices" in the sciences, Isabelle Stengers explores the discordant...
Originally published in French in seven volumes, Cosmopolitics investigates the role and authority of the sciences in modern societies and c...
"Ware die Philosophie auch nur eine Stunde der Mu he wert, wenn sie uns nicht fu r das Leben ru stete?" Gezielten Schrittes entwirft der franzosische Philosoph Etienne Souriau in diesem dicht gedrangten Buch eine Grammatik der Existenz. Im Fokus steht nicht nur ihre Theorie, sondern auch die tatsachliche Ausu bung der "Kunst des Existierens." Wie Gilles Deleuze und William James vertritt Souriau dabei die These eines existenziellen Pluralismus: Es gibt Phanomene, Dinge, das Virtuelle, fiktionale Wesen - die Existenz ist polyphon. Souriaus radikale Herangehensweise hat auch Bruno Latour und...
"Ware die Philosophie auch nur eine Stunde der Mu he wert, wenn sie uns nicht fu r das Leben ru stete?" Gezielten Schrittes entwirft der franzosische ...
A pioneering book that shows how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis. Order Out of Chaos is a sweeping critique of the discordant landscape of modern scientific knowledge. In this landmark book, Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine and acclaimed philosopher Isabelle Stengers offer an exciting and accessible account of the philosophical implications of thermodynamics. Prigogine and Stengers bring contradictory philosophies of time and chance into a novel and ambitious synthesis. Since its first publication...
A pioneering book that shows how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis. ...
Didier Debaise Tomas Joseph Weber Isabelle Stengers
A radically new philosophy of experience and speculation, based on a reading of Whitehead's Process and Reality Can experience be thought systematically without transforming the richness of the world as it is lived into reductive philosophical generalities? Can the method of empiricism ever be reconciled with a method of systematic cosmological speculation? Didier Debaise's reading of Whitehead shows clearly what a philosophy that makes this possible looks like, how it works and what is at stake. He focuses in on Whitehead's attempt to...
A radically new philosophy of experience and speculation, based on a reading of Whitehead's Process and Reality
Like fast food, fast science is quickly prepared, not particularly good and it clogs up the system. Efforts to tackle our most pressing issues, like global warming, have been stymied by conflict within the scientific community and mixed messages, symptomatic of a rushed approach.
Like fast food, fast science is quickly prepared, not particularly good and it clogs up the system. Efforts to tackle our most pressing issues, like g...
We think we know what healers do: they build on patients' irrational beliefs and treat them in a 'symbolic' way. If they get results, it's thanks to their capacity to listen, rather than any influence on a clinical level.
We think we know what healers do: they build on patients' irrational beliefs and treat them in a 'symbolic' way. If they get results, it's thanks to t...
