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9780195096361

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this book is a healthy antidote to all the deconstructing of the remarkable achievements of Western science that is going on in modern academic life. Harold Morowitz, Nature

""I enjoyed reading this book; he makes a good case for the Greek origins of science as a way of knowing.""--Linda M. Sweeting, Towson State University ""This is a great book! It will do much to explain what science does to non-scientists.""--Tom McCreary, California State University at Chico ""Provocative, insightful, guaranteed to raise the hackles of current ""educationists"" and parents--as it should!""--William Stern, University of Florida ""I will recommend this book for supplemental reading in my history of medicine and history of biology classes. This book should appeal to students with more than average curiosity.""--Professor Lois Magner, Purdue University ""Brilliant...makes a powerful argument for the superiority of the scientific process.""--Anchorage Daily News ""I enjoyed reading this book; he makes a good case for the Greek origins of science as a way of knowing.""--Linda M. Sweeting, Towson State University ""This is a great book! It will do much to explain what science does to non-scientists.""--Tom McCreary, California State University at Chico ""Provocative, insightful, guaranteed to raise the hackles of current ""educationists"" and parents--as it should!""--William Stern, University of Florida ""I will recommend this book for supplemental reading in my history of medicine and history of biology classes. This book should appeal to students with more than average curiosity.""--Professor Lois Magner, Purdue University ""Brilliant...makes a powerful argument for the superiority of the scientific process.""--Anchorage Daily News ""Cromer's sprightly montage outlines selected landmarks in human evolution and the history of the sciences, repeatedly demonstrating the difficulty humans have separating egocentric thinking from reality: witness tenacious belief in astrology, ESP, and UFOs. Cromer ranges among philosophies Greek, Judaic, Hindu, Babylonian, and Chinese, but always concentrates on the uniqueness of the scientific revolution--and the constant threat to it of educational inadequacy. A concise communicator, Cromer is easy on the eyes, harder on the brain.""--Booklist ""Cromer nails his thesis against the doors of what he perceives as the current orthodoxies of New Age romanticism, political correctness and multiculturalism, reiterating his view that the core of scientific thinking was a uniquely Western discovery and not a natural development latent in all evolving civilizations. He believes that this 'uncommon sense' is easily overwhelmed by the persistent infantile appeal of such 'magical' explanations of our observed world as UFOs, the paranormal and crystal channelings. Cromer and colleagues have conceived a science curriculum called SEED (Science Education Experiments & Demonstrations) for students and teachers in the middle school grades which is worthy of consideration by all educators.""--Publishers Weekly ""An excellent book. It is refreshing when a scientist has the courage to declare that there is an outside world, independent of human minds, mathematically structured, and that science is cumulative, always building on past results rather than a series of upheavals such as Thomas Kuhn maintains.""--Martin Gardner, author of Gardner's Whys & Wherefores and Fractal Music, Hypercards & More ""A fascinating and innovative interpretation of the scientific enterprise which I found both instructive and enjoyable.""--Paul Kurtz, author of Eupraxophy and In Defense of Secular Humanism

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Alan Cromer, a professor of physics at Northeastern University, is actively involved with enhancing middle-level science education.

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