An Idiot's Fugitive Essays on Science. Methods, Criticism, Training, Circumstances.

TRUESDELL, C. [Clifford] (1919-2000):

ISBN 10: 0387907033 / ISBN 13: 9780387907031

Published by New York, etc.: Springer-Verlag, 1984., 1984

About this Item

First Edition. Frontispiece, xvii, 654 pp; 30 illus. Original cloth. Near Fine, without dust jacket (as issued). Reprints 42 papers; chapters 16-31 = reviews of books in the history of science (most of them critical in Truesdell's inimitable fashion).

Seller Inventory # 15963

Bibliographic Details

• Title: An Idiot's Fugitive Essays on Science. Methods, Criticism, Training, Circumstances.
• Publisher: New York, etc.: Springer-Verlag, 1984.
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387907033
• ISBN 13: 9780387907031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

When, after the agreeable fatigues of solicitation, Mrs Millamant set out a long bill of conditions subject to which she might by degrees dwindle into a wife, Mirabell offered in return the condition that he might not thereby be beyond measure enlarged into a husband. With age and experience in research come the twin dangers of dwindling into a philosopher of science while being enlarged into a dotard. The philosophy of science, I believe, should not be the preserve of senile scientists and of teachers of philosophy who have themselves never so much as understood the contents of a textbook of theoretical physics, let alone done a bit of mathematical research or even enjoyed the confidence of a creating scientist. On the latter count I run no risk: Any reader will see that I am untrained (though not altogether unread) in classroom philosophy. Of no ignorance of mine do I boast, indeed I regret it, but neither do I find this one ignorance fatal here, for few indeed of the great philosophers to explicate whose works hodiernal professors of phil­ osophy destroy forests of pulp were themselves so broadly and specially trained as are their scholiasts. In attempt to palliate the former count I have chosen to collect works written over the past thirty years, some of them not published before, and I include only a few very recent essays.