Research Catalog

The third culture

Filter by

Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	Q141 .B76 1995	Off-site

Description

413 pages; 25 cm

Summary

The Third Culture is an eye-opening look at the intellectual culture of today - in which science, not literature or philosophy, takes center stage in the debate over human nature and the nature of the universe.
Thirty-five years ago, C. P. Snow, in a now famous essay, wrote about the polarization of the "two cultures" - literary intellectuals on the one hand, and scientists on the other. Although he hoped for the emergence of a "third culture" that would bridge the gap, it is only recently - when books such as Daniel C.
Dennett's Consciousness Explained, Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, and Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct became bestsellers - that science has changed the intellectual landscape.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

Contents

Introduction: The Emerging Third Culture -- Ch. 1. "A Package of Information" / George C. Williams -- Ch. 2. "The Pattern of Life's History" / Stephen Jay Gould -- Ch. 3. "A Survival Machine" / Richard Dawkins -- Ch. 4. "Biology Is Just a Dance" / Brian Goodwin -- Ch. 5. "Why Is There So Much Genetic Diversity?" / Steve Jones -- Ch. 6. "A Battle of Words" / Niles Eldredge -- Ch. 7. "Gaia Is a Tough Bitch" / Lynn Margulis -- Ch. 8. "Smart Machines" / Marvin Minsky -- Ch. 9. "Information Is Surprises" / Roger Schank -- Ch. 10. "Intuition Pumps" / Daniel C. Dennett -- Ch. 11. "The Thick Moment" / Nicholas Humphrey -- Ch. 12. "The Emergent Self" / Francisco Varela -- Ch. 13. "Language Is a Human Instinct" / Steven Pinker -- Ch. 14. "Consciousness Involves Noncomputable Ingredients" / Roger Penrose -- Ch. 15. "An Ensemble of Universes" / Martin Rees -- Ch. 16. "A Universe in Your Backyard" / Alan Guth -- Ch. 17. "A Theory of the Whole Universe" / Lee Smolin -- Ch. 18. "The Synthetic Path" / Paul Davies.
Ch. 19. "Plectics" / Murray Gell-Mann -- Ch. 20. "Order for Free" / Stuart Kauffman -- Ch. 21. "A Dynamical Pattern" / Christopher G. Langton -- Ch. 22. "The Second Law of Organization" / J. Doyne Farmer -- Ch. 23. "Close to the Singularity / W. Daniel Hillis.

ISBN

0684803593

LCCN

95000083

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries