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Science is very successful in discovering
the structure and history of the physical world. However,
there is more to be told of the encounter with reality,
including the nature of scientific inquiry itself, than
can be gained from impersonal experience and experimental
test alone. Beyond Science considers the human context
in which science operates and pursues that wider understanding
which we all seek. It looks to issues of meaning and value,
intrinsic to scientific practice but excluded from science's
consideration by its own self-denying ordinance. The author
raises the question of the significance of the deep mathematical
intelligibility of the physical world and its anthropically
fruitful history. He considers how we many find responsible
ways to use the power that science places in human hands.
Science is portrayed as an activity of individuals, pursued
within a convivial and truth-seeking community.
This book neither overvalues science (as
if it were the only worthwhile source of knowledge) nor
devalues it (as if it were to be treated with suspicion
or not taken seriously). Rather, Beyond Science provides
a considered and balanced account that firmly asserts science's
place in human culture, maintained in mutually illuminating
relationships with other aspects of that culture.
John Polkinghorne has had a distinguished
career as a particle physicist and as an author on books
exploring themes in science and religion. He was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and was Professor
of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge in
1968-79. In 1982 he was ordained as a priest in the Anglican
Church. Since 1989 John Polkinghorne has been the President
of Queen's College, Cambridge. His books include The
Particle Play (W.H. Freeman, 1979), The Quantum World
(Longman, 1984), and Science and Christian Belief
(SPCK, 1994).
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