Overview

This is a study of the American historian and philosopher, E.A. Burtt, who has been described as an ""individual thinker...beyond philosophical or historical currents or fashion."" Burtt's book, ""The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science"", is something of a puzzle within the context of 20th-century intellectual history, especially American intellectual history, its analysis of the scientific revolution proving prophetic in its rejection of both scientism and positivism. Published in 1924, the book continues to be read in educated circles and remains both the rose and the thorn on university reading lists, raising sceptical questions about science methods and science knowledge just as it did then. This book examines Burtt's public, academic and personal life. From his politics of conscience after World War I on through the cold war, Burtt is shown to be a man of integrity, whose relentless search for philosophic understanding drove his more quixotic philosophical quests and steered his personal life, including its tragic dimension, toward simple virtue. The many who have been affected by ""The Metaphysical Foundations"" should be especially interested in this new perspective on the life and thought of its author. Those who have not read Burtt's books might be inspired to study this unusual American thinker.

Full Product Details

Author:   D. Villemaire
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   2002 ed.
Volume:   226
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.360kg
ISBN:  

9781402004285

ISBN 10:   1402004281
Pages:   300
Publication Date:   28 February 2002
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1: Columbia University in the 1920’s: The Young Radical Philosophers.- 2: The Idealists: James Harvey and the Genetic Method of History, John Dewey and Reflective Thinking.- 3: The Realists Who Sharpened the Edges of Burtt’s Ideas.- 4: The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science.- 5: The Chicago School of Pragmatism.- 6: Religious Humanism.- 7: Burtt’s New Philosophy of Mind.- 8: The Genesis of Hypothesis and the Metaphysics of Empirical Theory.- 9: Burtt’s Newton and the Debate Over the Rationality of Early Modern Science.- 10: What Happened to the Metaphysical Foundations and Burtt’s Interest in the History of Science.- 11: Burtt’s Philosophy After 1935.- 12: A Return to the Ideas in the Metaphysical Foundations.- Conclusion.- Notes.

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