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Paradigms Lost

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John L. Casti (Author)
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John L. Casti (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0380711659
ISBN-10: 0380711656
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 592 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 1, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0380711656
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380711659
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Perhaps the best popular science book I have ever read
By A. Jogalekar VINE VOICE on December 10, 2001
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Without a doubt, this is one of the most insightful books I have ever come across in my life. In it a mathematician takes a critical and penetrating look at the most baffling problems facing humanity and science. These are; The Origin of Life, Language Acquisition, Sociobiology and Genetic Determinism, Artificial Intelligence, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the Mysteries of Quantum Physics. In narrating these topics Casti adopts a unique courtroom style in which he presents the arguments in favor of and against the dominant hypothesis in each of the fields, and then steps in to act as jury and provide his own opinion.

But the book is more than only a deep exposition of these topics. Casti weaves an extremely lively and entertaining tale about a host of characters and discoveries involved in these exciting areas of thought and research. One of the things I noticed in this book is the marvelous sense of humour that Casti employs. Nowhere else in serious science writing or even in popular accounts have I seen such intelligent dashes of humor expressed in such fine language. In fact that's one of the outstanding triumphs of this book. The language in the book is sophisticated, yet very accessible. The bibiliography at the end is almost as lavishly detailed as the book itself.

In my opinion, Casti has emerged as one of the finest science writers in the world because of this book. I strongly suspect that it is because of his unique experiences; he combines the artistic and culturally sophisticated style which he developed in Europe with the informal, witty and pragmatic cheek found among Americans writers which he must have picked up during his time in the United States.Read more ›
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Superb discussion of modern theories
By magellan HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER on February 7, 2004
Format: Paperback
Casti is one of the best science writers out there considering he isn't nearly as well known as some of them, but he deserves to be. Also, his books are consistently at a respectable level of technical detail and sophistication which is rare in science writing intended for the layman. In this book, although the discussions range from current cosmological theory to evolutionary biology to quantum physics, I was most interested in his discussion of Chomsky and current linguistic theory, which is my interest, so I will confine myself to that.
In this chapter, Casti gives the best introduction for the general reader that I've seen on Chomsky's ideas on innate language acquisition and transformational grammar. In the process, he also compares them with competing views such as Sampson's and Piaget's, and he even discusses E.O. Wilson's sociobiological views a bit, which Chomsky himself commented on. After reading this chapter, you would probably be able to read the chapter on generative and transformational grammar in a good introductory theoretical linguistics text, such as John Lyons's classic Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, or Donna Jo Napoli's recent book, entitled simply Linguistics, which is also excellent. So overall, another great book from Casti that stands head and shoulders above the competition and with a great introduction to modern linguistic theory.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
deep, human-centric, overview of current science
By Mike Ferrell on December 5, 1999
Format: Paperback
Casti poses the question, "What does current science, in particular, important unanswered questions in current science, tell us about humanity's place in the universe?" Thankfully, Casti is an amazingly knowledgeable and fair guide, with the emphasis always firmly on clear explication of that science, not any particular interpretation of its pertinence to the human condition. Casti is a scientist, not a dogmatist.
The breadth and depth of this book are exceptional. Casti injects a little of himself here and there, as well, and comes across as a jovial fellow... his erudition speaks for itself.
One of my favorites!
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Dazziling
By David N. Reiss on January 9, 2000
Format: Paperback
This book is splendidly written. It surveys some of the big scientific controversies of our day. He tackels evolution, genetics, language, artificial intelligence, and the search for extraterestrial intelligence and two philiosophical questions that impenge on science. What is good is that he provides lots of footnotes to other works that those who, if they are really interested, can consult. The footnotes helped me locate lots of other good books for my library.
John Casti is one of the great writers of modern popular science non-fiction.
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17 of 25 people found the following review helpful
A controversial, but fascinating tour de force of science
By Massimo Pigliucci (pigliucci@utk.edu) on December 10, 1997
Format: Paperback
John Casti is an American mathematician transplanted in the old world, namely in martial and musical Vienna. And it shows. His prose is as witty and cultured as any European master would like it, and as concise and right to the point as any new world's scientist is taught to produce. Even though my personal opinions about the subject matters covered by Casti in this book more often than not radically depart from his conclusions, this is by all means a must for any skeptic's library. And it will figure nicely in most other collections as well. Paradigms lost is about six major unsolved mysteries in modern science (some would say in modern philosophy). In order of appearance, we have: the origin of life, the genetic basis of human behavior, the existence of a unique "language-organ" in the human brain, the question of thinking machines, the possibility to uncover extraterrestrial intelligences afoot in our galaxy, and the very existence of a real world independent of external observers. Wow! It's hard to imagine a more compelling intellectual tour de force... The structure of Casti's book provides a "claim" at the beginning of each chapter, such as "there exist intelligent beings in our galaxy with whom we can communicate". The author then provides a minimal background necessary to assess the arguments, and proceeds to lead the way to a parade of "witnesses" for the "prosecution" (in favor of the claim) and the "defense" (against the claim). In so doing, we are treated to the reasoning of Einstein and Bohr, Dawkins and Gould, Miller and Crick (if you don't recognize these names, shame on you, skip the rest of the review and pick up the book itself...).Read more ›
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