Science, Paradox, and the Moebius Principle confronts basic anomalies in the foundations of contemporary knowledge. Steven M. Rosen deals with paradoxes that call into question our conventional way of thinking about space, time, and the nature of human experience. Rosen's contribution is unique in at least five respects: 1) He provides an unparalleled integration of modern theoretical science and contemporary phenomenological thought. 2) He features a section of dialogue with David Bohm, who contributed greatly in fields of major concern to the book. 3) He sets forth a process theory and philosophy, presenting a concept in which space, time, and consciousness undergo a continuous internal transformation and organic growth. 4) He furnishes a highly specific account of dialectical change, employing geometric forms that bring the dynamics of paradox into focus with unprecedented clarity. 5) He is transdisciplinary and provides transcultural bridges between the "two cultures" of science and the humanities.

Science has revolutionized our lives and continues to show inexorable progress today. It may seem obvious that this must be because its theories are steadily getting better and approaching the truth about the world. After all, what could science be progressing toward, if not the truth? But scholarship in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science offers little support for such a sanguine view. Those opposed to specific conclusions of the scientific community-nonbelievers in vaccinations, climate change, and evolution, for example-have been able to use a superficial understanding of the nature of science to sow doubt about the scientific consensus in those areas, leaving the general public confused as to whom to trust, with damaging effects for the health of individuals and the planet. The Great Paradox of Science argues that to better counter such anti-science efforts requires us to understand the nature of scientific knowledge at a much deeper level and dispel many myths and misconceptions. It is the use of scientific logic, the characteristics of which are elaborated on in the book, that enables the scientific community to arrive at reliable consensus judgments in which the public can retain a high degree of confidence. This scientific logic is applicable not just in science but can be used in all areas of life. Scientists, policymakers, and members of the general public will not only better understand why science works: They will also acquire the tools they need to make sound, rational decisions in all areas of their lives.

Excerpt from Paradoxes of Nature and Science: Things Which Appear to Contradict General Experience or Scientific Principles, With Popular Explanations of the How and Why Nature is a great conjurer. With many of her tricks we are so familiar that they do not astonish us; but on giving them a little consideration we often find that they are really very puzzling performances, and we become as eager to learn the explanation as children at a Christmas conjuring party to hear the performer's account of how he does it, or children of an older growth to learn from the political prestidigitator at the head of the opposite party how he reconciles his action with his principles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Since antiquity, opposed concepts such as the One and the Many, the Finite and the Infinite, and the Absolute and the Relative, have been a driving force in philosophical, scientific, and mathematical thought. Yet they have also given rise to perplexing problems and conceptual paradoxes which continue to haunt scientists and philosophers. In Oppositions and Paradoxes, John L. Bell explains and investigates the paradoxes and puzzles that arise out of conceptual oppositions in physics and mathematics. In the process, Bell not only motivates abstract conceptual thinking about the paradoxes at issue, but he also offers a compelling introduction to central ideas in such otherwise-difficult topics as non-Euclidean geometry, relativity, and quantum physics. These paradoxes are often as fun as they are flabbergasting. Consider, for example, the famous Tristram Shandy paradox: an immortal man composing an autobiography so slowly as to require a year of writing to describe each day of his life — he would, if he had infinite time, presumably never complete the work, although no individual part of it would remain unwritten. Or think of an office mailbox labelled “mail for those with no mailbox”—if this is a person’s mailbox, how can they possibly have “no mailbox”? These and many other paradoxes straddle the boundary between physics and metaphysics, and demonstrate the hidden difficulty in many of our most basic concepts.