Special Sciences and the Unity of Science

The book offers a set of contemporary case-studies (from Physics, Computation, Biology, Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, Economics, Human Sciences) in favour of the unity of science. They provide arguments, analogies, approaches and models which are valuable for understanding the role, the forms, the methods, the aims and the meaning of unity of science program today.

Science is a dynamic process in which the assimilation of new phenomena, perspectives, and hypotheses into the scientific corpus takes place slowly. The apparent disunity of the sciences is the unavoidable consequence of this gradual integration process. Some thinkers label this dynamical circumstance a 'crisis'. However, a retrospective view of the practical results of the scientific enterprise and of science itself, grants us a clear view of the unity of the human knowledge seeking enterprise. This book provides many arguments, case studies and examples in favor of the unity of science. These contributions touch upon various scientific perspectives and disciplines such as: Physics, Computer Science, Biology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, and Economics.

Unique work on the tension between unity and specialization in science Provocative questions to test the hypothesis of science unification from a interdisciplinary perspective. For example: is Evolutionary Biology part of Computer Science? Offers a set of case-studies in favour of the Unity of Science

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2.Pragmatic continuities in Empirical Science. Some Examples from the History of Astronomy; Maria de la Concepcion Caamaño Alegre.- 3. The Principle of Eurhythmy. A Key to the Unity of Physics; J.R. Croca.- 4. Unifying Science through Computation: Reflection on Computability and Physics; Edwin J. Beggs; José Félix Costa; John V. Tucker.- 5. Looking at Water through Paradigms; A. Perera; F. Sokoli.- 6. Introducing Universal Symbiogenesis; Nathalie Gontier.- 7. The Symbiotic Phenomenon in the Evolutive Context; Francisco Carrapiço.- 8. Plant Neurobiology: Lessons for the Unity of Science; Paco Calvo Garzón.- 9. Computer Science meets Evolutionary Biology: Pure Possible Processes and the Issue of Gradualism; Philippe Huneman.- 10. Evolutionary Phsychology and the Unity of Sciences Towards an Evolutionary Epistemology; Luís Moniz Pereira.- 11. Unity of Science and Pluralism: Cognitive Neurosciences of Racial Prejudice as a Case Study; Luc Faucher.- 12. Sciences as Open Systems: The Case of Economics; Vítor Neves.- 13. Plurality of Science and Rational Integration of Knowledge; Catherine Laurent.- 14. A Physicalist Reconstruction of a Theory: the Case of the Freudian Theory of Hysteria; César Lorenzano.- 15. The Cultural Sciences and their Basis in Life. On Ernst Cassirer's Theory of the Cultural Sciences; Christian Möckel.- 16. Appearance on Existence of the Entity Realism 'Sense' or Mind; A. Yazdini.- 17. Fiction, Counterfactuals: The Challenge for Logic; Brian Hill.-