Our earlier book, How We Know: An Exploration of the Scientific Process, was written to give some conception of what the scientific approach is like, how to recognize it, how to distinguish it from other approaches to understanding the world, and to give some feeling for the intellectual excitement and aesthetic satisfactions of science. These goals represented our concept of the term "scientific literacy." Though the book was written for the general reader, to our surprise and gratification it was also used as a text in about forty colleges, and some high schools, for courses in science for the non-scientist, in methodology of science for social and behavioral sciences, and in the philosophy of science. As a result we were encouraged to write a textbook with essentially the same purpose and basic approach, but at a level appropriate to college students. We have drawn up problems for those chapters that would benefit from them, described laboratory experiments that illustrate important points discussed in the text, and made suggestions for additional readings, term papers, and other projects. Throughout the book we have introduced a number of chapters and appendices that provide examples of the uses of quantitative thinking in the sciences: logic, math ematics, probability, statistics, and graphical representation.

What do we do when we view a work of art? What does it mean to have an 'aesthetic' experience? Are such experiences purely in the eye of the beholder? This book addresses the nature of aesthetic experience from the perspectives of philosophy psychology and neuroscience.

Philosopher, natural scientist, and dramaturge to theme parks, museums, zoos, and other types of venues, Frank has been in the global attraction business for 25 years. He draws on that background and on his education in zoology and human biology (U. of Vienna) to study human experience with the same scientific vigor that human cognition has been studied for three decades. He discusses what human experience consists of, the making of reality, how to design attractions and experiences, a system-related classification, a process-related classification, and on the verge of a new attraction era. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Distinguished scientists and thinkers from a wide range of disciplines examine the relationship of scientific knowledge and practice to the wider dimension of human life and awareness.

Reveals the evidence of life beyond death • Examines 125 years of scientific research into reincarnation, apparitions, and communication with the dead showing these phenomena are real • Reveals the existence of higher planes of consciousness where the souls of the dead can choose to advance or manifest once again on Earth • Explains how these findings have been ignored and denied because they are incompatible with materialist doctrines In this book, Chris Carter shows that evidence of life beyond death exists and has been around for millennia, predating any organized religion. Focusing on three key phenomena--reincarnation, apparitions, and communications from the dead--Carter reveals 125 years of documented scientific studies by independent researchers and the British and American Societies for Psychical Research that rule out hoaxes, fraud, and hallucinations and prove these afterlife phenomena are real. The author examines historic and modern accounts of detailed past-life memories, visits from the deceased, and communications with the dead via medium and automatic writing as well as the scientific methods used to confirm these experiences. He explains how these findings on the afterlife have been ignored and denied because they are incompatible with the prevailing doctrine of materialism. Sharing messages from the dead themselves describing the afterlife, Carter reveals how consciousness exists outside the parameters of biological evolution and emerges through the medium of the brain to use the physical world as a springboard for growth. After death, souls can advance to higher planes of consciousness or manifest once again on Earth. Carter’s rigorous argument proves--beyond any reasonable doubt--not only that consciousness survives death and continues in the afterlife, but that it precedes birth as well.

“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.

Nobel Laureate Leon N. Cooper places pressing scientific questions in the broader context of how they relate to human experience.