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The Two Principal Laws of Thermodynamics: A Cultural and Historical Exploration |
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The Two Principal Laws of Thermodynamics: A Cultural and Historical Exploration
List Price: $30.00
Our Price: $30.00
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Manufacturer: Duquesne University Press
Author: Jan Hendrick Van Den Berg
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 2004-12-30
Publisher: Duquesne University Press
Label: Duquesne University Press
Number Of Pages: 126
Features:
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Facinating approach to historical analysis 2006-02-26
IF J.H. van den Berg's history of the discovery of the laws of Thermodynamics sounds a bit dry, read on. The author's concern is for the relationship between cuture, history and scientific discovery; and he writes in a simple compelling style that belies the complexity of thought behind his narrative. You don't need to know anything about phenomological psychology or his theory of historical analysis (which he terms metabletics) to enjoy his essays. Just skip the first 45 pages which is background information written by other persons, and jump right into the text. It's very enjoyable.
Breakthrough insights into the relationship between personal experience and scientific thinking 2006-02-15
In this work, phenomenological thinker van den Berg breaks through the barrier between theory and experience, and by implication also that between science and religion. His research serves as a powerful critique of both the reductionistic (scientistic) view of reality and also the modern institutional religious perspective that revelation and "natural theology" lie only in the past. His analysis of the long-delayed discovery of thermodynamics shows clearly how its historical and phenomenological roots lay in the social changes wrought by the French Revolution. Much as Karl Marx based his critique of capitalism on a critique of religion (and his economic errors were prefigured by his philosophical ones), van den Berg shows that the revolutionary overthrow of Nature's "Great Chain of Being" (as personified by the monarchy and aristocracy) permitted certain exceptional individuals to perceive Nature in a wholly new way. This gave us both the benefits of dramatically increased productivity and control of Nature but at the same time a devaluation of the personal sense of our place in the cosmos. These insights hold great promise for better understanding of the dynamic interaction of cultural worldviews and technology, with provocative implications for ethics and religion.
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