Argues that a pluralistic understanding of truth can foster productive conversations about common concerns involving religion, science, ethics, politics, economics, and ecology without falling into re
Argues that a pluralistic understanding of truth can foster productive conversations about common concerns involving religion, science, ethics, politics, economics, and ecology without falling into re
In this major re-evaluation of Isaac Newton's intellectual life, Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs shows how his pioneering work in mathematics, physics, and cosmology was intertwined with his study of alchemy. Directing attention to the religious ambience of the alchemical enterprise of early modern Europe, Dobbs argues that Newton understood alchemy - and the divine activity in micromatter to which it spoke - to be a much needed corrective to the overly mechanized system of Descartes. The same religious basis underlay the rest of his work. To Newton it seemed possible to obtain partial truths from many different approaches to knowledge, be it textual work aimed at the interpretation of prophecy, the study of ancient theology and philosophy, creative mathematics, or experiments with prisms, pendulums, vegetating minerals, light, or electricity. Newton's work was a constant attempt to bring these partial truths together, with the larger goal of restoring true natural philosophy and true religion.
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Could we ever tell it all? And if we did, who would understand it? The facts of science are always partial truths – yours, mine or somebody else’s. All stru
Architecture is doomed to a permanent process of reinvention, which produces constitutionally partial, transient and questionable truths. Much of its charm lies precisely in its instability, which ins
In a marketplace where consumers are conditioned to tolerate—and accept—lies, deception, partial truths, and omission of facts, “let the buyer beware” has become stale advice from a bygone era.The new
