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Zusatztext In this beautifully written, engaging and perceptive book, Gross has tracked the idea of the sublime from its origins in pre-modern western culture to the popularizations of science of the last half century. He shows how influential physicists and biologists have united to present a vast epic that attempts to explain the origin and meaning of lifean account that competes with the Biblical narrative. Anyone interested in what modern science tells us about humanitys place in nature must read this book. Informationen zum Autor Alan G. Gross is a Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar. His specialty is scientific communication. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Science and co-author of Communicating Science, The Scientific Literature, The Craft of Scientific Communication, Science from Sight to Insight, and The Internet Revolution in the Sciences and Humanities. Klappentext In The Scientific Sublime, Alan Gross reveals the modern-day sublime in popular science. He shows how the great popular scientists of our time¿Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, Rachel Carson, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and E. O. Wilson¿evoke the sublime in response to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? How did life? How did language? Zusammenfassung The sublime evokes our awe, our terror, and our wonder. Applied first in ancient Greece to the heights of literary expression, in the 18th-century the sublime was extended to nature and to the sciences, enterprises that viewed the natural world as a manifestation of God's goodness, power, and wisdom. In The Scientific Sublime, Alan Gross reveals the modern-day sublime in popular science. He shows how the great popular scientists of our time--Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, Rachel Carson, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and E. O. Wilson--evoke the sublime in response to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? How did life? How did language? These authors maintain a tradition initiated by Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Adam Smith, towering 18th-century figures who adapted the literary sublime first to nature, then to science--though with one crucial difference: religion has been replaced wholly by science. In a final chapter, Gross explores science's attack on religion, an assault that attempts to sweep permanently under the rug two questions science cannot answer: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of the good life? Inhaltsverzeichnis Chapter 1: Isn't Science Sublime? Part I: The Physicists Chapter 2: Richard Feynman: The Consensual Sublime Chapter 3: Steven Weinberg: The Conjectural Sublime Chapter 4. Lisa Randall: The Technological Sublime Chapter 5. Brian Greene: The Speculative Sublime Chapter 6. Stephen Hawking: The Scientific Sublime Embodied Part II: The Biologists Chapter 7. Rachel Carson: The Ethical Sublime Chapter 8. Stephen Jay Gould's Books: The Balanced Sublime Chapter 9. Stephen Jay Gould's Essays: Experiencing the Sublime Chapter 10. Steven Pinker: The Polymath Sublime Chapter 11. Richard Dawkins: The Mathematical Sublime Chapter 12. E. O. Wilson: The Biophilic Sublime Part III Chapter 13. Move Over, God ...
