From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of Science [Paperback]

Nicholas Maxwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1987 | ISBN-10: 0631156410 | ISBN-13: 978-0631156413

This highly original book argues the need for a profound and comprehensive intellectual revolution. Its central concern is to address the problems of hunger, poverty, political oppression, war and the threat of war, showing how a new kind of practical wisdom affecting all branches of science, technology and scholarship might help us to resolve such problems of living. 'The essential idea is really so simple, so transparently right ...It is a profound book, refreshingly unpretentious and deserves to be read, refined and implemented.' 'Annals of Science' 'A strong effort is needed if one is to stand back and clearly state the objections to the whole enormous tangle of misconceptions which surround the notion of science today. Maxwell has made that effort in this powerful, profound and important book.' Mary Midgley,'University Quarterly' 'Maxwell is advocating nothing less than a revolution (based on reason, not on religious or Marxist doctrine) in our intellectual goals and methods of inquiry ...There are altogether too many symptoms of malaise in our science-based society for (his) diagnosis to be ignored.' Christopher Longuet-Higgins,'Nature' Students and scholars of philosophy, philosophy and history of science, general science and history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A humanist and philosopher, Maxwell presents his ideas with eloquence and conviction. -- American Library Association, October, 1984.

Maxwell's book is a major contribution to current work on the intellectual status and social functions of science. -- D. Collingridge, Social Studies of Science 15, Nov. 1985, pp. 763-69.

The essential idea is really so simple, so transparently right ... It is a profound book, refreshingly unpretentious. -- S. Richards, "Philosophical Aspects of Science", Annals of Science 42, May 1985, pp. 348-9.

There are altogether too many symptoms of malaise in our science-based society for Nicholas Maxwell's diagnosis to be ignored. -- Professor Christopher Longuet-Higgins, Nature, vol. 312, Nov. 1984, p.204.

this powerful, profound and important book -- Mary Midgley, University Quarterly: Culture, Education and Society 40, 1986, pp. 425-7. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

In this wide ranging yet closely reasoned book, Nicholas Maxwell forcefully argues the need for a comprehensive revolution in the aims and methods of science. The dominant aim of science has traditionally been the acquisition and extension of knowledge. Instead the author argues a new kind of inquiry which would have as its fundamental aim the enhancement of personal and social wisdom. The new kind of inquiry would be devoted to the alleviation of the problems of living - poverty, hunger, political oppression, war - through the discovery and assessment of alternative courses of action leading to the attainment of peace, justice, happiness, a more humane world. Knowledge and technology become subsidiary: it is what we do and what we are that matter. In a careful critical evaluation of the `philosophy of knowledge' and the `philosophy of wisdom', and of the objections to each, the author shows the philosophy of wisdom to be not only more desirable but also more rational. By spelling out its detailed implications, he throws light across a broad spectrum from the philosophy of mathematics and the theory of evolution to educational and religious issues. The result is an impassioned yet rigorous argument which will interest not only the professional philosopher and scientist but anyone concerned with tomorrow's world. `Maxwell's theory of aim-oriented empiricism is the outstanding work on scientific change since Lakatos. . . It is broad in scope, closely and powerfully argued. . . No other theory provides, as Maxwell's does in principle, for the rational direction of the overall growth of science.' George F. Kneller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Pub (August 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631156410
• ISBN-13: 978-0631156413
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,421,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Much of my working life has been devoted to trying to get across the point that we urgently need to bring about a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry, so that the basic aim becomes to promote wisdom rather than just acquire knowledge. To begin with, I wanted to understand the nature of the universe. When still a boy I struggled with the baffling mysteries of theoretical physics - and failed the 11-plus exam twice! (This is an exam one had to pass in the UK when I was young in order to continue with one's education, unless one's parents could pay school fees. Fortunately, mine could.) Then, with adolescence, I began to feel it was much more important to understand the hearts and souls of people, the way to do that being via the novel. I plunged into the worlds of Dostoevsky, Kafka, Stendhal, Chekhov, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Flaubert. My real education began. I would become a novelist and dare to reveal dark secrets of the human heart no one before had uttered. But I never learnt how to fabricate in order to tell the truth. So, after failures, mystical experiences, and other travails, I became a philosopher. In all my work I have struggled with two basic problems: (1) How can human life exist - conscious, free, meaningful and of value - if the world really is more or less as modern physical science tells us it is? (2) What ought to be the overall aims and methods of science, and of academic inquiry more generally, granted that the basic task is to help humanity achieve what is of value in life? One might sum it up in one problem: How can life of value exist and best flourish in the real world?
I have published six books on this theme: What's Wrong With Science? (Bran's Head Books, 1976; 2nd edition, Pentire Press, 2009), From Knowledge to Wisdom (Blackwell, 1984; 2nd edition, Pentire Press, 2007), The Comprehensibility of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 1998; paperback 2003), The Human World in the Physical Universe: Consciousness, Free Will and Evolution (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001); Is Science Neurotic? (Imperial College Press, December 2004); and Cutting God in Half - And Putting the Pieces Together Again: A New Approach to Philosophy (Pentire Press, 2010). I have also contributed to a number of other books, and have published numerous papers in science and philosophy journals on problems that range from consciousness to quantum theory. For nearly thirty years I taught philosophy of science at University College London, where I am now Emeritus Reader in Philosophy of Science. In 2009 a book was published devoted to my work, edited by Leemon McHenry, called Science and the Pursuit of Wisdom: Studies in the Philosophy of Nicholas Maxwell (Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt). A few years ago I founded an organization called Friends of Wisdom, which promotes the idea that we need to bring about a revolution in our universities, so they come to help humanity learn how to create as good, as wise, a world as possible. Some universities are beginning to put my ideas into practice - for example, my own university, University College London. My website URL, where more information about my life and work may be found, is: www.nick-maxwell.demon.co.uk.