Penultimate Curiosity - How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions

When young children first begin to ask 'why?' they embark on a journey with no final destination. The need to make sense of the world as a whole is an ultimate curiosity that lies at the root of all human religions. It has, in many cultures, shaped and motivated a more down to earth scientific interest in the physical world, which could therefore be described as penultimate curiosity. These two manifestations of curiosity have a history of connection that goes back deep into the human past. Tracing that history all the way from cave painting to quantum physics, this book (a collaboration between a painter and a physical scientist that uses illustrations throughout the narrative) sets out to explain the nature of the long entanglement between religion and science: the ultimate and the penultimate curiosity.

Product details

• Authors: Andrew Briggs, Andrew (Professor of Nanomaterials Briggs, Briggs Andrew, Roger Wagner, Roger (Artist and Writer Wagner, Wagner Roger
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.02.2016
• EAN: 9780198747956
• ISBN: 978-0-19-874795-6
• No. of pages: 494
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); popular science, SCIENCE / Physics / General, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, RELIGION / Religion & Science, Philosophy of Science, Physics, Religion and science, Religion & science