Jacob Bronowski

The ascent of man

"A gem of enlightenment. . . . One rejoices in Bronowski's dedication to the identity of acts of creativity and of imagination, whether in Blake or Yeats or Einstein or Heisenberg."--Kirkus Reviews "According to Bronowski, our account of the world is dictated by our biology: how we perceive, imagine, symbolize, etc. He proposes to explain how we receive and translate our experience of the world so that we achieve knowledge. He examines the mechanisms of our perception; the origin and nature of natural language; formal systems and scientific discourse; and how science, as a systematic attempt to establish closed systems one after another, progresses by exploring its own errors and new but unforeseen connections. . . . A delightful look at the inquiring mind."--Library Journal "Eminently enjoyable to read, with a good story or 'bon mot' on every page."--Nature "A well-written and brilliantly presented defense of the scientific enterprise which could be especially valuable to scientists and to teachers of science at all levels."--AAAS Science Books & Films Contents 1. The Mind as an Instrument for Understanding 2. The Evolution and Power of Symbolic Language 3. Knowledge as Algorithm and as Metaphor 4. The Laws of Nature and the Nature of Laws 5. Error, Progress, and the Concept of Time 6. Law and Individual Responsibility

The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination

Thought-provoking essays on science as an integral part of the culture of our age from a leader in the scientific humanism movement. "A profoundly moving, brilliantly perceptive essay by a truly civilized man."--Scientific American

Science & Human Val

إرتقاء الإنسان

Science and Human Values was originally a lecture by Jacob Bronowski at MIT in 1953. Published five years later, it opens unforgettably with Bronowski's description of Nagasaki in 1945: 'a bare waste of ashes', making him acutely aware of science's power both for good and for evil. After such knowledge, what forgiveness? With care and erudition Bronowski argues that scientific endeavour is an essentially creative act, part of a great shared human interest in ourselves and the world around us; and, routinely, a process of trial-and-error, the end of which is not - cannot be - preordained. 'Above all, Bronowski strove to make science and technology answerable to social progress, to 'human values.' He anticipated the deepening gap between the 'two cultures' and knew that the sciences must be restored to a place in political common sense.' George Steiner

Science and Human Values

A Man Without a Mask

William Blake, 1757-1827

Bruce Mazlish

Traces the development of thought through historical movements and periods from 1500 to 1830.

The Western Intellectual Tradition

Whereas science creates experiments to test hypotheses about the outside world, he notes that literature also provides "experiments" in poetry and prose, allowing readers to experience what it means to be fully human and relating the individual's inner life to that of every human being. Bronowski argues that a true humanistic philosophy must give equal place to the inner, subjective vision of the arts and the outer, objective perception of science since they are both products of one self-conscious creative imagination.

The Identity of Man

Jacob Bronowski truly educated an enormous number of members of that diffuse population usually referred to, with a hint of condescension, as "educated laymen" through his widely shared television series on the concepts of science and through such highly regarded books as The Identity of Manand The Ascent of Man.This volume extends the process to a further level of insight, and it may be more than suggestive that its final essay is entitled "The Fulfillment of Man." Bronowski was an extraordinary teacher precisely because he did not condescend to his audience. He did not talk down to them; he knew how to talk them up to something near his own level, however briefly. He felt that if human beings are taken seriously, they can be led to respond to serious and difficult subjects that relate to the deepest aspects of nature, both beyond and within themselves. A Sense of the Futuresucceeds brilliantly in this respect, in part because it is a collection of essays that can be read independently as self-contained, delimited presentations; and in part because the book is more than the sum of these individual essays—it is a unified whole in which Bronowski's most abiding concerns are interrelated, juxtaposed, and tested for consistency in various intellectual contexts. The major unifying theme of the work is the intensely creative and human nature of the scientific enterprise—its kinship, at the highest levels of individual achievement, with comparable manifestations of the artistic imagination, and its ethical imperatives, evolved within the community of scientists over the centuries, which both embody and forge the values of civilized life at large. Still, the book's diversity of topics is as striking as the unity of its aim. Among the subjects within the realm of Bronowski's mind that are presented here are the limitations of formal logic and experimental methods, the epistemology of science, the distinctive nature of human language and the human mind, and the bases of biological and cultural evolution. Bronowski also contrasts the findingsof science as the "here and now" of man's understanding with the ongoing activityof science as the open-ended search for truth, and he undertakes to demonstrate that the factual, individual isand the ethical, societal oughtcan be derived each from the other. A mathematician by training, Bronowski published poetry as well as books on literature and intellectual history. In addition to those mentioned above, The Common Sense of Scienceand Science and Human Valuesare among the most widely read of his books. Before his death in 1974, he was for many years a Senior Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where his formal area of research was concerned with the questions of human specificity and uniqueness. Clearly, his interests ranged far beyond this area, and in many directions.

Essays in Natural Philosophy

A Sense of the Future

L'identità dell'uomo

Este clásico del doctor Bronowski traza el desarrollo de la sociedad humana a través de nuestra comprensión de la ciencia. Publicado en 1973 junto con una innovadora serie de televisión de la BBC, es considerado una de las primeras obras de divulgación científica, que ilumina el contexto histórico y social del desarrollo científico para una generación de lectores. Bronowski analiza la invención humana desde la herramienta de pedernal a la geometría, desde la agricultura a la genética y desde la alquimia a la teoría de la relatividad, mostrando cómo todas ellas son expresiones de nuestra capacidad de comprender y controlar la naturaleza. Un viaje a través de la historia intelectual con el fin de encontrar "los grandes monumentos de la invención humana": la isla de Pascua, Machu Picchu, la biblioteca de Newton y el observatorio de Gauss, la Alhambra y las cuevas de Altamira. En cada lugar, Bronowski considera las cualidades del pensamiento y la imaginación que hicieron que el hombre, primero, analizara el mundo físico para, a continuación, explorar las leyes y estructuras invisibles por encima y por debajo de su superficie. El hombre asciende al descubrir la plenitud de sus propios dones, y lo que va creando en el camino son "monumentos" en las etapas de su comprensión de la naturaleza y de sí mismo.

El ascenso del hombre

Cuvânt înainte de Richard Dawkins Traducere de Dan Nicolae Popescu Ascensiunea omului urmărește, într-un stil unic, dezvoltarea societății umane prin prisma înțelegerii științei. Cartea lui Jacob Bronowski, ce însoțește renumitul documentar omonim BBC produs și prezentat de autor, a devenit un titlu de referință datorită perspectivei cuprinzătoare asupra omului și datorită felului în care elucidează contextul socioistoric al dezvoltării științei ca întreprindere pur umană. Discutând inventivitatea umană de la uneltele de piatră la geometrie, de la agricultură la genetică și de la alchimie la teoria relativității, Bronowski arată în ce fel reprezintă acestea abilitatea noastră de a înțelege și a controla natura. „O carte superbă.“ (SAGAN) „O carte minunată… care m-a învățat foarte multe lucruri despre relația dintre istorie și știință.“ (SINGH) „Aceasta nu este doar o carte despre știință, ci şi o carte care ne spune de ce știința contează și care este mesajul pe care aceasta ni-l transmite.“ (RADFORD, The Guardian) „Cine în afară de Bronowski mai poate îmbina fără cusur gândirea științifică cu o cunoaștere profundă a istoriei, artei, antropologiei culturale, literaturii și filozofiei? Dar el o face cu dezinvoltură, fără sforțări, fără să dea vreodată dovadă de cea mai mică urmă de afectare. Bronowski se folosește de limba engleză – care nu este limba lui maternă, fapt cu atât mai remarcabil – la fel cum un pictor se folosește de pensulă, arătându-și măiestria atât pe pânza în ansamblu, cât și în neîntrecutele detalii miniaturale.“ (DAWKINS)

Jacob Bronowski

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