[Free eBook] The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet by Michael Ruse [Earth Science Philosophy History]
The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet by Michael Ruse, a director of the History and Philosophy of Science program at Florida State University, is a science history book, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher the University of Chicago Press.
This is their featured Free Book of the Month for January.
This accessibly-written book covers the philosophic and scientific roots and history and eventual legacy of the Gaia hypothesis developed by chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis, which became a popular and influential movement with the general public and New Age groups during the 1970s, but was also disputed amongst scholars for several decades after.
Offered worldwide through Monday, January 31st, available directly from the publisher.
Currently free @ the publisher's dedicated promo page (DRMed PDF with Adobe Digital Editions and Readium LPC download options; requires newsletter signup with valid email address) and you can read more about the book on its regular catalogue page.
Description
In 1965 English scientist James Lovelock had a flash of insight: the Earth is not just teeming with life; the Earth, in some sense, is life. He mulled this revolutionary idea over for several years, first with his close friend the novelist William Golding, and then in an extensive collaboration with the American scientist Lynn Margulis. In the early 1970s, he finally went public with the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that everything happens for an end: the good of planet Earth. Lovelock and Margulis were scorned by professional scientists, but the general public enthusiastically embraced Lovelock and his hypothesis. People joined Gaia groups; churches had Gaia services, sometimes with new music written especially for the occasion. There was a Gaia atlas, Gaia gardening, Gaia herbs, Gaia retreats, Gaia networking, and much more. And the range of enthusiasts was—and still is—broad.
In The Gaia Hypothesis, philosopher Michael Ruse, with his characteristic clarity and wit, uses Gaia and its history, its supporters and detractors, to illuminate the nature of science itself. Gaia emerged in the 1960s, a decade when authority was questioned and status and dignity stood for nothing, but its story is much older. Ruse traces Gaia’s connection to Plato and a long history of goal-directed and holistic—or organicist—thinking and explains why Lovelock and Margulis’s peers rejected it as pseudoscience. But Ruse also shows why the project was a success. He argues that Lovelock and Margulis should be commended for giving philosophy firm scientific basis and for provoking important scientific discussion about the world as a whole, its homeostasis or—in this age of global environmental uncertainty—its lack thereof.
Melding the world of science and technology with the world of feeling, mysticism, and religion, The Gaia Hypothesis will appeal to a broad range of readers, from students and scholars of the history and philosophy of science to anyone interested in New Age culture.
While not a believer himself, Mr. Ruse harbors a great deal of sympathy for those who find ultimate meaning in the universe and their lives through worship. Taking his cue from his own Quaker upbringing, he argues that three things remain deeply satisfying in life, even if philosophically one ends up on the side of Epicurus and his denial of design: family; a life of service to others; and, not surprisingly for a philosopher, the life of the mind. For many people, there is indeed purpose in each of these, and perhaps, Mr. Ruse suggests, that is enough.
~ John Farrell, “Review: To What End is All This?” Farrell review John Farrell reviews ‘On Purpose’ by Michael Ruse published by Princeton University Press, November 14, 2017, (wsj.com, December 13, 2017)
«Estoy absolutamente convencido de que, en el futuro, la Biología se fundirá precisamente, por un extremo, con las ciencias físicas y, por el otro, con las ciencias sociales. Veremos, que disciplinas como la Sicología, la Sociología y la Antropología incorporan, cada vez más, a sus teorías resultados obtenidos por los biólogos. Durante este proceso, los filósofos desempeñarán, a mi modo de ver, un papel cada vez más importante. Por el contrario, el encuentro de las ciencias sociales y biológicas clarificará —en mi opinión—de manera importante, los problemas filosóficos tradicionales del libre albedrío, del determinismo y de la naturaleza y relaciones de cuerpo y mente.»
Michael Ruse: La filosofía de la biología. Alianza Editorial, págs. 262-263. Madrid, 1990
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