Oppositions and Paradoxes: Philosophical Perplexities in Science and Mathematics - Couverture souple

Bell, John L.

 
9781554813025: Oppositions and Paradoxes: Philosophical Perplexities in Science and Mathematics
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 1554813026 ISBN 13 : 9781554813025
Editeur : Broadview Press Ltd, 2016

Synopsis

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.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

John L. Bell is Professor of Philosophy at Western University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Broadview Press Ltd
Date d'édition
2016
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
1554813026
ISBN 13 
9781554813025
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
216
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible