The Blind Spot : : Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty / / William Byers.

In today's unpredictable and chaotic world, we look to science to provide certainty and answers--and often blame it when things go wrong. The Blind Spot reveals why our faith in scientific certainty is a dangerous illusion, and how only by embracing science's inherent ambiguities and parad...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Place / Publishing House:Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2011]
©2011
Year of Publication:2011
Edition:Course Book
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (240 p.) :; 2 halftones. 3 line illus.
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024 7 |a 10.1515/9781400838158  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-B1597)453746 
035 |a (OCoLC)979593677 
040 |a DE-B1597  |b eng  |c DE-B1597  |e rda 
041 0 |a eng 
044 |a nju  |c US-NJ 
050 4 |a Q175.5  |b .B94 2011 
072 7 |a SCI075000  |2 bisacsh 
082 0 4 |a 500 
100 1 |a Byers, William,   |e author.  |4 aut  |4 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 
245 1 4 |a The Blind Spot :  |b Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty /  |c William Byers. 
250 |a Course Book 
264 1 |a Princeton, NJ :   |b Princeton University Press,   |c [2011] 
264 4 |c ©2011 
300 |a 1 online resource (240 p.) :  |b 2 halftones. 3 line illus. 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a computer  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a online resource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
347 |a text file  |b PDF  |2 rda 
505 0 0 |t Frontmatter --   |t Contents --   |t Preface: The Revelation of Uncertainty --   |t 1. The Blind Spot --   |t 2. The Blind Spot Revealed --   |t 3. Certainty or Wonder? --   |t 4. A World in Crisis! --   |t 5. Ambiguity --   |t 6. Self-Reference: The Human Element in Science --   |t 7. The Mystery of Number --   |t 8. Science as the Ambiguous Search for Unity --   |t 9. The Still Point --   |t 10. Conclusion: Living in a World of Uncertainty --   |t Acknowledgments --   |t Notes --   |t References --   |t Index 
506 0 |a restricted access  |u http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec  |f online access with authorization  |2 star 
520 |a In today's unpredictable and chaotic world, we look to science to provide certainty and answers--and often blame it when things go wrong. The Blind Spot reveals why our faith in scientific certainty is a dangerous illusion, and how only by embracing science's inherent ambiguities and paradoxes can we truly appreciate its beauty and harness its potential. Crackling with insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas, from climate change to the global financial meltdown, this book challenges our most sacredly held beliefs about science, technology, and progress. At the same time, it shows how the secret to better science can be found where we least expect it--in the uncertain, the ambiguous, and the inevitably unpredictable. William Byers explains why the subjective element in scientific inquiry is in fact what makes it so dynamic, and deftly balances the need for certainty and rigor in science with the equally important need for creativity, freedom, and downright wonder. Drawing on an array of fascinating examples--from Wall Street's overreliance on algorithms to provide certainty in uncertain markets, to undecidable problems in mathematics and computer science, to Georg Cantor's paradoxical but true assertion about infinity--Byers demonstrates how we can and must learn from the existence of blind spots in our scientific and mathematical understanding. The Blind Spot offers an entirely new way of thinking about science, one that highlights its strengths and limitations, its unrealized promise, and, above all, its unavoidable ambiguity. It also points to a more sophisticated approach to the most intractable problems of our time. 
538 |a Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. 
546 |a In English. 
588 0 |a Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 27. Jan 2023) 
650 0 |a Science  |v Social aspects. 
650 0 |a Science  |x Social aspects. 
650 0 |a Sciences  |v Aspect social. 
650 0 |a Uncertainty (Information theory). 
650 7 |a SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects.  |2 bisacsh 
653 |a Acknowledgment (creative arts and sciences). 
653 |a Algorithm. 
653 |a Ambiguity. 
653 |a Analogy. 
653 |a Approximation. 
653 |a Axiom. 
653 |a Axiomatic system. 
653 |a Basic research. 
653 |a Big O notation. 
653 |a Calculation. 
653 |a Certainty. 
653 |a Chaos theory. 
653 |a Circumference. 
653 |a Computation. 
653 |a Concept. 
653 |a Conjecture. 
653 |a Consciousness. 
653 |a Consistency. 
653 |a Contingency (philosophy). 
653 |a Continuous function. 
653 |a Continuum hypothesis. 
653 |a Contradiction. 
653 |a Counting. 
653 |a David Bohm. 
653 |a Dynamism (metaphysics). 
653 |a Emergence. 
653 |a Euclidean geometry. 
653 |a Explanation. 
653 |a Feeling. 
653 |a Fermat's Last Theorem. 
653 |a Geometry. 
653 |a Gestalt psychology. 
653 |a Gregory Chaitin. 
653 |a Gödel's incompleteness theorems. 
653 |a Human behavior. 
653 |a Human intelligence. 
653 |a Hypothesis. 
653 |a Ideology. 
653 |a Inference. 
653 |a Integer. 
653 |a Irrational number. 
653 |a Learning. 
653 |a Logic. 
653 |a Logical reasoning. 
653 |a Mathematician. 
653 |a Mathematics. 
653 |a Measurement. 
653 |a Methodology. 
653 |a Modernity. 
653 |a Molecule. 
653 |a Natural number. 
653 |a Nature. 
653 |a Paradigm shift. 
653 |a Paradox. 
653 |a Participant. 
653 |a Phenomenon. 
653 |a Philosopher. 
653 |a Philosophy of mathematics. 
653 |a Philosophy of science. 
653 |a Philosophy. 
653 |a Platonism. 
653 |a Prediction. 
653 |a Principle. 
653 |a Probability. 
653 |a Pythagoreanism. 
653 |a Qualitative property. 
653 |a Quantification (science). 
653 |a Quantity. 
653 |a Quantum mechanics. 
653 |a Randomness. 
653 |a Rational number. 
653 |a Rationality. 
653 |a Real number. 
653 |a Reality. 
653 |a Reason. 
653 |a Reductionism. 
653 |a Relationship between religion and science. 
653 |a Result. 
653 |a Science. 
653 |a Scientific method. 
653 |a Scientific progress. 
653 |a Scientific theory. 
653 |a Scientist. 
653 |a Self-reference. 
653 |a Set theory. 
653 |a Special case. 
653 |a Subatomic particle. 
653 |a Subjectivity. 
653 |a Suggestion. 
653 |a Technology. 
653 |a The Philosopher. 
653 |a Theorem. 
653 |a Theoretical physics. 
653 |a Theory of everything. 
653 |a Theory. 
653 |a Thomas Kuhn. 
653 |a Thought. 
653 |a Uncertainty. 
653 |a Universality (philosophy). 
653 |a Writing. 
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776 0 |c print  |z 9780691146843 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400838158 
856 4 0 |u https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400838158 
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