Books

Concise guide to physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy. Provides an overview of these subjects for those intending to study science and for interested non-scientists. Includes an appendix on philosophy and science and a foreword by Robyn Williams.

Providing the insight of a dissident scientist on the larger questions of life, this booklet examines the meaning of philosophy, as opposed to technology, and provides an outline of its role in morals, politics, science, and logic.  Rather than "sheer, dispassionate, rational contemplation", Vivian Pope argues that philosophy "involves evaluation,... the wise selection of... information" for the "ultimate or long-term welfare of mankind, both as an individual and as a whole - which man... must secure for himself by proper exercise of his distinguishing natural faculty, reason." 

In the past there has been no approach to the study of prime numbers other than that provided by the Seive of Eratosthanes. The process is that pf sifting out composite numbers to leave the primes. Then we may sya that the process yields primes by default.

The present treatise is concerned with the development of algebraic forms from which prime numbers can be developed. Solutions to all the unsolved problems concerning primes are presented. These include the problem of twin primes, sums and differences of primes, and algebraic forms yielding primes.

Also included are solutions to Fermat's Last Theorem, and the Four Color Problem. The basic philosophy is that of showing how easy these unsolved problems can be in actuality. The first two chapters then serve to instill confidence that there are no difficult problems in mathematics. The student must overcome prejudice to the effect that mathematics is difficult before he can relax and enjoy the subject. It is hoped that the present work will give the student as much enjoyment in the reading of it as the author derived in the process of writing.

Contents:

1. Fermat's Last Theorem 1
2. The Four Color Problem 9
3. Twin Primes 17
4. The Sum of Odd Primes 25
5. Problems Involving Primes 35
6. The Distribution of Primes 45

From the inside cover: Hithero no book has been written to convey to the educated public exactly what sciecntific method is, how it has arisen, and why it is so much more successful in disclosing new knowledge than any other.  Science: Its Method and Its Philosophy supplies this need.

Dr. Burniston Brown presents the rise of scientific method in an evolutionary form, beginning with a description of learning processes in animals.  then words and their meaning are discussed, for it is the use of symbols that seems to distinguish human beings most markedly from animals.  But the power of words may be easily exaggerated, and this is very evident in Aristotle's method of science, a defect which was largely overcome by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum.

The work of Newton, Whewell, Mill and others, which has brought scientific method to its present form, is then explained.  Biographical details concerning some of the main figures dealt with, help to enliven the general treatment and to show science as a creative activity of human beings.

The most recent developments in the philosophy of science due to Sir Arthur Eddington and Professor E. A. Milne are also discussed, and Dr. Brown presents their achievements in an original and striking manner.

The more general implications of a scienctific outlook on the universe is the subject of the final chapter which takes the form of a dialogue between Simplicius, who thinks and speaks in a way now out of date, and Salviati and Sagredo, who represent the moderns.

Dr. Brown's chief aim is to answer clearly three questions: What is scientific method?  How has it arisen?  What is a scientific outlook on the universe in general today?  There are questions of great importance at the present time, when the great increase in education, unless it is accompanied by a corresponding increase in clear thinking, may be a danger rather than a benefit to mankind.

From the Preface: Science has acquired great prestige in this century, and its effect on the everyday lives of ordinary people becomes more and more pronounced. Yet there are few who would care to be pressed for a definition of what scientific method is, and fewer still who could justify the confidence which is placed in it. This book is an attempt to explain the rise of scientific method and to show how it increases our power of making true statements about the world around us.

Perhaps, also, it may serve another purpose, and that is to stress the need for clear thinking. Education, to which so much importance is attached in the modern world, is of very doubtful value if it does not produce people who can think clearly. The great advances of science and the confidence that we can place in scientific knowledge show that scientists have developed a way of thinking which, if not as clear as it might be, nevertheless bears some relation to the processes of Nature it cannot be wholly muddled thinking.

Yet clear thinking is still rare to-day. Although everyone can give examples of discoveries due to the exercise of scientific method, few appreciate the discipline of thought which successful pursuit of this method demands. Most people do not even take the first step in scientific thinking, namely, the careful definition of the terms which they use. They are ashamed of being illogical, but the much greater error because more insidious of failing to distinguish between a fact and a hypothesis, is continually committed.

Ignorance of the scientific outlook causes people, whose ways of thinking are three hundred years out of date, to blame scientists for the discovery of atomic energy, or the micro-organisms which produce disease. Indeed, the assumption is often made that there is no such thing as a distinctive scientific philosophy, and that scientists are merely clever technicians whose ingenious inventions have rather overstepped the mark. As I have attempted to show in the last chapter, this is quite false. If the discipline of clear thinking, dispassionate inquiry, and respect for true knowledge, however unacceptable or unpleasant, were to become general, there would be much less cause for fear.

In describing the method of science, which is a way of learning SCIENCE ITS METHOD AND ITS PHILOSOPHY what is true about the Universe, I have started with the learning process in animals. There we see learning in what is presumably its simplest form. Then follows the consideration of words and their meaning, since it is the use of symbols that seems to distinguish human beings most markedly from animals.

In proceeding to discuss the opinions of various writers on what scientific method should be, I have restricted the account to those systems which are based first and foremost on observation, with reason and intuition second otherwise, of course, a description would have to have been given of almost all the philosophies of the world. The primary position given to facts of observation has been taken as the distinguishing mark of science. Needless to say, even so, the opinions of many who have written on scientific method have had to be omitted. This is because the chief aim of this book is to try to answer clearly three questions, firstly What is scientific method?, secondly: How has it arisen?, and thirdly What is a scientific outlook on the Universe in general to-day? The aim is not to provide a complete history of the rise of science, but only the historical background necessary to illustrate some of the early mistakes and to get a clear view of the final product...

"Even a physicist or philosopher of physics who does not subscribe to the realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics will find the book stimulating, informative and, perhaps to his surprise, also enjoyable.' Foundations of Physics

Review by Richard Healey, Philosophy of Science (March 1987), 54(1):132-134.

SpinbitZ is a playful, whirling, churning, folding and unfolding set of concepts for the illumination and integration of abstract philosophical ideas, through the integrated use of the imagination and its percepts. SpinbitZ constructs a set of philosophical "graphical user-interfaces" at the vision-logic level of cognition. It is thus a philosophy of vision-logic interfaces, employing the "triune interfaces," or "cultivated thirds" hidden within the polarities of every duality, dichotomy, controversy and paradox to build a consistent system for the effective understanding and resolution of their key esoteric truths, rather than for their dualistic and reactionary refutation. In using these interfaces to trace a nondual thread of rationality to its historical roots, it is discovered that only the dualistic, exoteric (or commonly understood) forms of rationality begin with the Greek trinity: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. By reconnecting to the earlier nondual truths of Heraclitus and Parmenides, the conceptual axis-mundi itself (what Lao Tzu called "the door to all wonders") is found spinning at the core of Zeno's paradox, and thus at the core of nondual rationality. Through a fusion of Art, Science, Mathematics and Philosophy?and with the help of nearly a hundred detailed diagrams and illustrations?this embryogenesis of rationality is traced as it reconnects to the alternative lineage of philosophy uncovered by Deleuze, with a nondual fusion of the systems of Spinoza and Leibniz.

In esoteric Theosophy it is said that in the "shock" of the interface between Spinoza and Leibniz "the essence and Spirit of esoteric philosophy would be made to appear." Unfolding through these vision-logic interfaces, this Interface Philosophy finally appears to reconcile many of the dualities plaguing the history of exoteric rationality. In its nondual interface with empiricism and Integral theory, for example, a detailed sketch of an Interface Epistemology is unfolded. Operating at the crossroads of the ontic-epistemic (reality vs. knowledge) and subject-object polarities, the evolutionary symbiogenesis of the exoteric dichotomies at the foundations of human knowledge is examined?illuminating and reconciling the "ontic-shadow" of post-modernity.

The process of reanimating these hidden nondual truths of rationality demonstrates that mathematics itself mirrors this holarchic structure implicit in the embryogenesis of the concept.  This is because mathematics, as the art and science of pure relation, employs the most rarefied and abstract form of the concept, e.g. numbers and operations. Unfolding in layer upon layer, this Interface Mathematics transitions from the "oppositional forces" of dualism, ultimately again to the "intensive," integral or "second-tier" truths, and to the originary axis-mundi of the nondual.  In making mathematics visible, visceral and understandable?a Vision-Logic Coordinate System is constructed revealing two fundamental axes of conceptual thought (one of which is this axis mundi or immanent/transcendent axis).  Spinoza's "three infinities" are then shown as the triune interface, or cultivating third between these binary axes, for illuminating and reconciling the many paradoxes and controversies of infinity?e.g. Zeno's, Galileo's and Cantor's?as they wind their way into the truths of our modern mathematics of the continuum and set-theory. - Back cover.

The most radical feature of the new theory is a new physics based on hidden variables. In the 20th century, the most celebrated proponent of hidden variable theory was the physicist David Bohm. Einstein, de Broglie, Dirac, and Schr?dinger were also convinced that a deterministic substratum underlies the merely probabilistic characterisation of reality to which orthodox quantum theory is restricted.

One implication of Geoffrey Read's new physics is that the past persists throughout Nature. This leads to a new biology grounded on a force, precisely relatable to physical forces, issuing from past experience. In this theory, brains do not contain memories but directly access the persisting past.

Read's theory also encompasses parapsychology, survival of death, and reincarnation. The Coherent Universe is essential reading for those interested in new world-views, and for those concerned with emergent holistic, ecological, and spiritual thinking. It will have special relevance for those interested in the metaphysical foundations of science, the brain/mind relationship, and the origins of consciousness. - Peter Hewitt

" ... a most impressive intellectual achievement. Despite the comparatively short length of your work, you have managed to convince me that, in principle, it covers EVERYTHING. It is a GUTE - a GRAND UNIFIED THEORY of EVERYTHING" - Professor Christopher Macann

"Readers of Whitehead, Bergson, Bohm, and Sheldrake will warm to the project ... The Coherent Universe usefully might serve as a textbook for a variety of university courses ... should invite spirited discussion for years to come." - Professor Mark Woodhouse

The three spatial characteristics of length, height and depth are used in the same unreflective way by laymen, technicians and scientists alike to describe the forms, positions and measure of bodies and hollow bodies. But how do we know that the space we live in has just these three dimensions? The question has occupied philosophers and scientists since antiquity. The answers proposed have become ever more presumptuous and have increasingly lost sight of everyday intuitions and have sacrificed explanatory power. In Euclid's Heritage Janich shows that all explanations of three-dimensionality hinge on an unreflective geometrical language which seems to accept the lack of an alternative for the three sorts of entities -- points, lines and planes -- that bound the three extended entities -- lines, planes and solids. This is a Euclidean heritage in a dual sense: Euclid himself adopted a geometrical language from the art of figure drawing, and left a tradition of doing geometry as planimetry and of doing stereometry by rotating plane figures.

The systematic approach offered here starts out from operational definitions of the spatial forms -- plane, straight edge and perpendicularity -- and proofs that only three planes can intersect pairwise orthogonally. This is the constructive solution in the frame theory of action, providing an unequivocal characterisation of spatial relations in the physical world. The traditional order of geometric concepts turns out to be the most important obstacle to the methodical ordering of everyday scientific concepts.

In addition to a study of the development path itself, the book presents a biographical gallery of more than a hundred scientists who contributed majorly to scientific development as well as a long list of references with links to original texts by the pioneers. The book is not only a source of information ? but also challenges the reader to consider for himself this scientific evolution, the basis of prevailing theories and the picture of reality.

?The Short History of Science ? or the long path to the union of metaphysics and empiricism? provides a tool and a source of inspiration for both teachers and students of natural sciences as well as for individuals willing to deepen their understanding of the universe we live in.

Back cover comments:

Dr. Suntola?s ?The Short History of Science? shows fascinating competence in its constructively critical in-depth exploration of the long path that the pioneers of metaphysics and empirical science have followed in building up our present understanding of physical reality. The book is made unique by the author?s perspective. He reflects the historical path to his Dynamic Universe theory that opens an unparalleled perspective to a deeper understanding of the harmony in nature ? to click the pieces of the puzzle into their places. The book opens a unique possibility for the reader to make his own evaluation of the postulates behind our present understanding of reality.

- Tarja Kallio-Tamminen, PhD, theoretical philosophy, MSc, high energy physics

The book gives an exceptionally interesting perspective on the history of science and the development paths that have led to our scientific picture of physical reality. As a philosophical question, the reader may conclude how much the development has been directed by coincidences, and whether the picture of reality would have been different if another path had been chosen.

- Heikki Sipil?, PhD, nuclear physics

Would other routes have been chosen, if all modern experiments had been available to the early scientists? This is an excellent book for a guided scientific tour challenging the reader to an in-depth consideration of the choices made.

- Ari Lehto, PhD, physics

Although the book makes an excellent supplement to college courses in scientific philosophy, it is an astounding eye-opener for the educated reader with an interest in science and philosophy. Except for the introduction, which covers the necessity for fundamental assumptions and the method for discovering them, this book is now Chapter 3 in The Scientific Worldview.

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY ARE FINALLY REUNITED!

'Vibration is that same energy, same power, ye call God" - Edgar Cayce

"The science of the future will be based on Sympathetic Vibrations." - Rudolph Steiner

"The sympathetic vibratory force discovered by Keely will be quite sufficient to make him the greatest discoverer of this age." - H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

"What are the sciences but maps of universal laws, and universal laws but the channels of universal power, and universal power but the outgoings of a universal mind?" - Edward Thomson

The latest of many attempts to link subatomic physics to broader human concerns, this brisk, uneven volume splits neatly in two: the first half explains key ideas in quantum physics, and the second makes grand claims about their worth for other fields. Classical physics rules out "action at a distance." (You can't move a billiard ball unless something--a pool cue, an air jet, lightning--contacts it.) But quantum physics permits "non-local" action, and recent experiments prove it: do certain things to one photon, and you'll affect another faster than light can travel between the two. Hence, "all of physical reality is a single quantum system that responds together to further interactions," say the authors. Nadeau (a historian of science) and Kafatos (a physicist), both professors at George Mason University, move from these cogent, compact exegeses of quantum non-locality to its purported meanings for biology, philosophy and even economics. Non-locality, Nadeau and Kafatos contend--with its attendant "complementarity" between parts and wholes--helps explain the origins of life, speaks to the evolution of consciousness, solves the dilemmas of recent social and literary thought and bridges for good the divides between mind and matter, arts and sciences. The authors bring up, but don't always keep in mind, the difference between explanation and analogy. Some arguments "prove" truths most potential readers already know (e.g., we ought to work to save the rain forests); others (about evolution and about French theory) seem facile. Nonetheless, Nadeau and Kafatos supply plenty of food for thought: the apparently recondite concept of non-locality, they suggest, has consequences everywhere. (Jan.) - Publisher's Weekle, Amazon

Non-locality and quantum entanglement are neither delicate nor rare events. Quantum non-locality is not rare and does not disappear. The Universe operates according to the principles of complementarity at all scales - Kafatos and Nadeau established the particulars of this verity with extraordinary adroitness in their watershed book "The Conscious Universe." The concept of non-locality as an implicate attribute of the material world is borne out by three pieces of impeccably documented science which are only now becoming generally known. Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues at CERN proved that Bell's predictions regarding non-locality were precisely correct. The positron-electron pairs they separated with a Potassium Niobate crystal and shunted through 15 kilometers of fiber optic cable, automatically re-oriented spin and polarity instantaneously to maintain net-spin values of zero when one of the particle-pair was accelerated through an electromagnetic field, to seven decimal points, in repeated trials. The effective rate at which the information transfer occurred between the particles is calculated to be at least 10 to the nine times faster than the speed of light. Second, Vladimir Poponin has demonstrated in his work with the DNA Phantom Effect that every molecule of DNA exerts a non-local field effect on the material locale surrounding it, which persists for up to 30 days after the DNA molecule source has been removed. The importance of Poponin's work is that it proves unequivocally that among living organisms, non-locality operates simultaneously with chemo-synaptic neuronal processes at all scales and in all living things. Finally, Donald Eigler's work at IBM's Almaden Lab's proves that non-local holographic field effects operate in all things as an intrinsic attribute of matter at atomic and sub-atomic scales, regardless of whether the materials are organic or not. In "The Non-Local Universe," Kafatos has simply opened the lid to this Pandora's box by providing an epistemological model which is carefully thought out, clearly articulated and reasonably constructed. His model is absolutely right on the mark and deserves to be read by anyone who is willing to look at this aggregation of unimpeachable evidence with clear scientific detachment. - David G. Yurth, Amazon

Unfortunately, many physicists have been imbued with ideas that it is exactly philosophy that is in need of such help. The origin of such suspicion goes back millennia. Early philosophers had regrettably misguided their contemporaries about the value of physical experimentation. Ever since the discipline has paid for this attitude of early arrogance.

For a long time physics has been able to steer clear of a similar arrogance in their discipline until the beginning of this century. When quantum physics came along, the pitfalls of 'exclusivism' became too numerous and the shield of self defense assumed an unintended edge of arrogance. Physicists began congregating in the legendary land of Hans Anderson under the inspiring guidance Nils Bohr.

Rarely had scientists encountered so many new things in so short a time. Faced with the daunting task of sorting out an inebriating avalanche of new perspectives, they started giving known words new meanings in physics. Examples are: nonclassical probability, absolute a priori uncertainty, particle-wave duality etc. Einstein supposedly was quoted as having referred to their activity as an epistemological orgy. If he really said this, his sense of physical reality was superb as usual, even if the word "epistemology" had been mildly misused.

The early phases of epistemology, to which Einstein presumably referred, are now known as "ontologies." Mario Bunge calls it "the furniture of the world." We know there is good and bad furniture and last, but not least, furniture should harmonize with its intended environment.

It is an irony of life that, as philosophy in the early days, now physics stumbled into its own trap of arrogance. If physics made some questionable ontological choices, this booklet may refer to them as rare brands of very durable Copenhagen furniture, yet beautiful in their own right. The problem has been more one of fitting rooms, tables and chairs together and less one of discarding furniture items, because in a short time the house of physics had been changing in a very dramatic fashion.

To the extent possible, these pages attempt a 'nontechnical account' of modern physics' facts and sins. In practice this means, there are very few formulas in this book to prevent icons from dominating the scene. If that is a shortcoming, let a more extensive discussion of formalisms make up for it. The result is a subject presentation which, in an optimistic sense, might be said to be reaching from preschool to beyond university.

Since Kant's Critique of Pure Reason had philosophy confessing to its sins, followed by a penance long ago, physics is now invited to do the same by confessing to its arrogance. The court of public opinion has sufficient grounds to consider charging the physics profession with:

1. abandoning a royal road to quantization.
2. inadequate consideration of alternatives to Copenhagen views.
3. intimidating rather than convincing others of what are believed to be right choices.

Since mathematics is a discipline without which much of physics could not be, the last chapter discusses some parallel developments between the two. A moderate measure of mathematical rigor and down-to-earth philosophy go a long way in helping physics home in on common corrective measures that can disentangle situations where physics may have gone overboard amidst an abundance of too much new in too little time.

Pondering the very valuable help rendered by Christine Brunak and Ruth Jackson in the process of proofing the text, it still puzzles and despairs me as to why this subject matter has either something akin to pulling teeth or tends to bring people to the brink of nervous breakdown. - Preface

Arthur Young conceived of The Geometry of Meaning as an essay in philosophy, but philosophy in the older sense, encompassing the natural sciences, exploring the implications of science, and dealing with the relationship of the knower and the known. At the heart of this book is what he called the "Rosetta Stone of meaning," a diagram of relationships based upon the twelve measure formulae of modern physics, which he used to describe the interaction of mind with matter.

READ EXCERPT

Arthur M. Young invented and created the Bell helicopter, the bubble-topped device we know from MASH, and the first commercially licensed helicopter in the country (and I think the world.) The same pragmatism, insight, and stubbornness that enabled him to realize that creation gives him the brainpower and audacity to come up with a theory of meaning that derives, in a flat-footed way, from equations of high-school physics. It stretches your brain in a direction, and to an extent, that will surprise you. I first read this book in the late 70's, and while it has attracted some following, it remains largely undiscovered. I have reread it twice recently and I see more each time. The Reflexive Universe is the sequel, and it is equally wonderful. AMY's thinking can be sampled at arthuryoung.com. - www.amazon.com