Document list – alphabetical by author
Anderson, P.W., “More Is Different” [abridged– 375 words] — quantitative differences become qualitative ones
Aerts, etal, Worldviews: From Fragmentation to Integration [excerpts–1700 words] [abstract– 280 words] — defines the concept of a world-view
Bible,The Old Testament– Ecclesiastes [200 words] — the cyclical world-view
Bronowski, Jacob "The Arrow of Time" [excerpt – 250 words] — disorder as an indicator of time
Bury, J. B., The Idea of Progress [abridged— 1000 words] [abstract— 140 words] — belief in progress is an act of faith
Campbell, Joseph "Free fall into the future" [excerpt– 100 words] — one reason for the failure on nerve
Chandler, David L. “The day dark energy conquered the universe” New Scientist [470 words] — the force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe
Danielson, Dennis R., Editor The Book of the Cosmos [abridged — 550 words]—observations by the greatest naked-eye astronomer
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) “The Banquet” [abridged– 1200 words] [abstract - 290 words] — the medieval astronomical world-view
Darwin, Charles On the Origin of Species (1859) [abridged– 390 words] — “There is grandeur in this view of life.”
—— On the Origin of Species [excerpts– 2900 words] [abstract– 380 words] –– Darwin's explanation of the theory
—— The Descent of Man Vol. II [abridged– 900 words] [abstract– 120 words] — humans are the product of evolution
Davies, Paul The Cosmic Blueprint [abridged– 1400 words] [abstract– 80 words] — quantum processes and self-organization can account for the universe and everything in it
—— The Cosmic Blueprint [abridged— 1500 words] [abstract— 170 words] –– how the universe came to be
—— The Cosmic Blueprint 1988 [excerpt— 570 words] — emergence of consciousness and free will
Dewey, John in Living Philosophies [abridged–700 words] [abstract– 70 words] — a philosophy of change using the findings of science
—— in Living Philosophies [140 words] — no one meaning or purpose - many
Dobzhansky, Theodosius Mankind Evolving [excerpt– 750 words] [abstract– 190 words] — humans may be evolving toward a kind of superconsciousness
Durant, Will: "Education" The Pleasures of Philosophy [185 words] — cultural inheritance make us human
Edman, Irwin, Four Ways of Philosophy Chapter [abridged– 3000 words] [abstract– 600 words] [full text– 18,600 words] — the rational way, philosophy as nature understood
—— in Living Philosophies [abridged - 800 words] [abstract— 150 words] — finding the good life amid confusion of too much knowledge
Einstein, Albert in Living Philosophies [abridged– 500 words] [full text– 1000 words] — his personal philosophy
—— Relativity: The Special and the General Theory [excerpt– 750 words] [abstract– 230 words] — Newton's action-at-a-distance is replaced by the concept of field
Faust, Clarence H., “The Search for Answers” in An Outline of Man’s Knowledge of the Modern World [abridged– 3100 words] [abstract– 250 words] — psychiatry may take the place of religion
France, Anatole The Garden of Epicurus, 1920 [excerpt– 900 words] — the medieval world-view
Frankfort, H. and H.A. “Myth and Reality” in The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man [abridged– 630 words] [abstract– 200 words] — two different world-views, an "It" or a "thou"
Freud, Sigmund, Excerpts from his writings
(sources The Nature of Man; ed Fromm and The Idea of Man; Matson) [1300 words] [abstract– 340 words] — humans are animals whose instincts are barely suppressed
Golden, Richard The pursuit of the Big Questions [790 words] [abstract– 100 words] — the kinds of Big Questions
—— The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and entropy [660words] — five statements of the law
—— Notes of the concept of progress, [1300 words] [abstract– 220 words] —- information on the different kinds of progress
—— Self-Organizing Systems: a resource for teachers 1997 [770 words] — origin of the concept of emergence
—— Self-Organizing Systems: a resource for teachers [abridged— 950 words] [abstract— 60 words] — organizing principles of self-organizing systems
—— Self-Organizing Systems: a resource for teachers [abridged— 1500 words] [abstract— 120 words] — characteristics of self-organizing systems
Hardin, Garrett Nature and Man’s Fate [abridged– 1500 words] [abstract– 400 words] — biological development is not progress
Hofstadter, Richard Social Darwinism in American Thought [abridged – 1300 words] [abstract – 320 words] — the rich and powerful must be the "fittest" – they survive very well
—— Social Darwinism in American Thought [abridged – 300 words] — the influence of the theory of evolution
Huxley, Julian “Man’s Place and Role in Nature” in New Bottles for New Wine [abridged— 2500 words] [abstract– 280 words] — humans with their culture are the new agents of evolution
—— "Redefinition of Progress" New Bottles for New Wine [abridged– 1800 words] [abstract– 300 words] — faith in scientific progress will suplant other myths
Huxley, Thomas H., Evolution and Ethics 1894 [abridged— 570 words] — combating the notion that “survival of the fittest” pertains to human society
Johnson, George “Challenging Particle Physics as Path to Truth” New York Times, [1800 words] [abstract— 130 words] — a new goal for physics research
Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions [excerpts -1400 words] [abstract– 170 words] — how science changes paradigms
LaPlace, Pierre., A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities [100 words] — the future is completely determined by the past
Laszlo, Ervin, The Systems View of the World [abridged– 1600 words] [abstract– 420 words] — humans are part of a complex natural self-organizing hierarchy
Lindberg, David C. The Beginning of Western Science [abridged– 1100 words] [abstract– 270 words] — prehistoric people and their universe
Lippman, Walter A Preface to Morals [300 words] — unease in our modern rich culture
Malinowski, Bronislaw Magic, Science and Religion [excerpts– 2200 words] [abstract– 250 words] — magic, ancient or modern, raises hopes of the miraculous domination of nature
Matson, Floyd W. The Broken Image Chapter IV “An Uncertain Trumpet: The New Physics” [excerpts– 3500 words] [abstract– 400 words] — space and time are no longer absolute, reality on the atomic level comes in unpredictable bits and is discontinuous
—— The Broken Image [abridged— 330 words] — results of the theory of relativity
——The Broken Image [abridged — 650 words] — the effects of quantum physics
—— The Broken Image [abridged— 1700 words] [abstract— 180 words] — the end of absolute time, space and matter
Mayr, Ernst “Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought” in Scientific American, July, 2000 [abridged– 2000 words] [abstract– 280 words] — reasons why modern thought is most dependent on Darwin's ideas
Mithen, Steven The Prehistory of the Mind [excerpt– 450 words] — ancient artists and artistic form
Morowitz, Harold J. The Emergence of Everything [abridged— 730 words] [abstract— 60 words] — the Pauli exclusion rule as a organizing principle
Murray, Gilbert Five Stages of Greek Religion [abridged– 1800 words] [abstract– 330 words] — from rationalism to mysticism, the failure of nerve
—— “The Stoic Philosophy” in Humanist Essays [abridged– 500 words] [abstract– 150 words] — human searching for a cosmic friend may simply be “the groping of a gregarious animal for its herd-leader among the stars.”
Overbye, Dennis “The current state of cosmology – a summary” New York Times, July 23, 2002 [abriged – 2800 words] [abstract – 370 words] — the expansion of the universe is speeding up under the influence of "dark energy"
Pascal, Blaise Pensees (Thoughts), 1660 [excerpts– 1000 words] [abstract– 500 words] — the famous religious wager
Randall,Jr., John Herman The Making of the Modern Mind [excerpt– 710 words] [abstract– 70 words] — on Giordano Bruno [1548-1600], an infinite number of worlds in an infinite universe
—— The Making of the Modern Mind [excerpt– 950 words] [abstract– 140 words] — on Baruch Spinoza [1632-1677], the highest form of worship is seeking to understand nature
—— The Making of the Modern Mind [abridged — 620 words] — careful observation coupled with mathematical calculation are the keys to astronomy
—— The Making of the Modern Mind [abridged — 660 words] — the mechanical interpretation of nature
—— The Making of the Modern Mind [abstract— 840 words] — the world is a machine and mathematics describes how it works
——The Making of the Modern Mind [abridged— 790 words] [abstract– 170 words] — the idea that reason and science will make human progress inevitable
Rogers, Eric M., Physics for the Inquiring Mind [abridged– 450 words] — what drives scientists
Russell, Bertrand, A Free Man’s Worship, 1918 [abridged– 1300 words] [abstract– 110 words] [full version of the essay– 3500 words] — the grand stoic reaction to an uncaring universe
Sagan, Carl The Cosmic Connection [excerpt– 2500 words] [abstract– 390 words] — the philosophical hunger for a cosmic perspective
Schrodinger, Erwin What Is Life? [abridged– 1700 words] [abstract– 230 words] — organisms maintain orderliness and delay the increase in entropy
Shapley, Harlow The View From a Distant Star [abridged –1900 words] [abstract– 430 words] — an optimistic assessment of the scientific world-view
Simpson, George Gaylord The Meaning of Evolution [abridged— 1300 words] [abstract– 300 words] — change is not progress, evolution is merely change
—— “The World into Which Darwin Led Us” in This View of Life [abridged– 2500 words] [abstract– 430 words] — the theory of evolution gave us the opportunity to develop a new world-view
Singer, Marcus G., “Philosophy” The World Book Encyclopedia [530 words] — defining philosophy
Sperry, Roger Science and Moral Priority [abridged— 2200 words] [abstract — 310 words] — mind and consciousness as emergents
Spinoza, Benedict De "On the Improvement of the Understanding" in Ethics [excerpt– 800 words] [abstract– 235 words] — how he came to his philosophy and why he writes to us
Tattersall, Ian, The Monkey in the Mirror [excerpt– 210 words] — emergence of symbolic thought
Wilson, Edward O. in Sociobiology and Behavior by David Barash, [excerpt — 540 words] — on sociobiology
—— On Human Nature [abridged— 3020 words] [abstract— 300 words] — on human aggression
—— On Human Nature [abridged— 2600 words] [abstract— 460 words] — on human altruism
Woodbridge, Frederick J. E. “Spinoza” in Ethics by Benedict De Spinoza [abridged– 1500 words] [full text– 5300 words] — Spinoza's ideas brought up-to-date and masterly explained
Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 Two poems [240 words] — "the world is too much with us"