Books about Proceeding from Amazon.com

As progress in science continues to reveal unimagined complexities, three scientists revisit the difficult and compelling question of the origin of our universe. As mathematician, biochemist, and philosopher of science, they explore the possibility of developing a reliable method for detecting an intelligent cause and evidence for design at the origin of life. In the process, they present a strong case for opening and pursuing a fruitful exchange between science and theology.

Mathematician William Dembski, author of The Design Inference, first argues that new developments in the information sciences make intelligent design objectively and scientifically detectable—he identifies the signs of design. Next, philosopher of science, Stephen Meyer, and biochemist Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box, argue that these signs are now clearly evident in both the architecture of the universe and the features of living systems. Other essays by the authors defend the scientific status of the theory of intelligent design and show how that theory supports traditional religious belief without necessarily "proving" the existence of God. In a concluding essay, Michael Behe responds to critics of his best selling book, Darwin's Black Box, thus bringing readers up-to-date on the status of the contemporary design argument in biology..
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The quality of blandness: no sooner do you identify it than it begins to appear at every turn. Blandness, by definition, pays little heed to the borders our various disciplines like to draw. As the embodiment of neutrality, the bland lies at the point of origin of all things possible and so links them.
—from In Praise of Blandness

Already translated into six languages, Francois Jullien's In Praise of Blandness has become a classic. Appearing for the first time in English, this groundbreaking work of philosophy, anthropology, aesthetics, and sinology is certain to stir readers to think and experience what may at first seem impossible: the richness of a bland sound, a bland meaning, a bland painting, a bland poem. In presenting the value of blandness through as many concrete examples and original texts as possible, Jullien allows the undifferentiated foundation of all things—blandness itself—to appear. After completing this book, readers will reevaluate those familiar Western lines of thought where blandness is associated with a lack—the undesirable absence of particular, defining qualities.

Jullien traces the elusive appearance and crucial value of blandness from its beginnings in the Daoist and Confucian traditions to its integration into literary and visual aesthetics in the late-medieval period and beyond. Gradually developing into a positive quality in Chinese aesthetic and ethical traditions, the bland comprises the harmonious and unnameable union of all potential values, embodying a reality whose very essence is change and providing an infinite opening into the breadth of human expression and taste.

More than just a cultural history, In Praise of Blandness invites those both familiar and unfamiliar with Chinese culture to explore the resonances of the bland in literary, philosophical, and religious texts and to witness how all currents of Chinese thought—Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism—converge in harmonious accord..
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Two books have been particularly influential in contemporary philosophy of science: Karl R. Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery, and Thomas S. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Both agree upon the importance of revolutions in science, but differ about the role of criticism in science's revolutionary growth. This volume arose out of a symposium on Kuhn's work, with Popper in the chair, at an international colloquium held in London in 1965. The book begins with Kuhn's statement of his position followed by seven essays offering criticism and analysis, and finally by Kuhn's reply. The book will interest senior undergraduates and graduate students of the philosophy and history of science, as well as professional philosophers, philosophically inclined scientists, and some psychologists and sociologists..
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With essays by international scholars, previously unpublished images and new archival information, this publication is essential to our current re-evaluation of Alexander Archipenko's contribution to modernism. This book is based upon a collection of papers given at the Archipenko Symposium at the Cooper Union in New York on September 17, 2005. 116 pages, 47 illustrations.Usually ships within 2 business days..
Price: $35.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Abduction Study Conference, held at MIT, is the best scientific conference ever convened on abductions Alien Discussions, the resulting proceedings, provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary introduction and research report on the abduction phenomenon..
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A great variety of complex phenomena in many scientific fields exhibit power-law behavior, reflecting a hierarchical or fractal structure. Many of these phenomena seem to be susceptible to description using approaches drawn from thermodynamics or statistical mechanics, particularly approaches involving the maximization of entropy and of Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics and standard laws in a natural way. The book addresses the interdisciplinary applications of these ideas, and also on various phenomena that could possibly be quantitatively describable in terms of these ideas..
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'This is a very stimulating book!' - N. G. de Bruijn. 'This short book will provide extremely enjoyable reading to anyone with an interest in discrete mathematics and algorithm design' - "Mathematical Reviews". 'This book is an excellent (and enjoyable) means of sketching a large area of computer science for specialists in other fields: It requires little previous knowledge, but expects of the reader a degree of mathematical facility and a willingness to participate. It is really neither a survey nor an introduction; rather, it is a paradigm, a fairly complete treatment of a single example used as a synopsis of a larger subject' - "SIGACT News". 'Anyone would enjoy reading this book. If one had to learn French first, it would be worth the effort!' - "Computing Reviews". The above citations are taken from reviews of the initial French version of this text - a series of seven expository lectures that were given at the University of Montreal in November of 1975.The book uses the appealing theory of stable marriage to introduce and illustrate a variety of important concepts and techniques of computer science and mathematics: data structures, control structures, combinatorics, probability, analysis, algebra, and especially the analysis of algorithms. The presentation is elementary, and the topics are interesting to nonspecialists. The theory is quite beautiful and developing rapidly. Exercises with answers, an annotated bibliography, and research problems are included.The text would be appropriate as supplementary reading for undergraduate research seminars or courses in algorithmic analysis and for graduate courses in combinatorial algorithms, operations research, economics, or analysis of algorithms. Donald E. Knuth is one of the most prominent figures of modern computer science. His works in "The Art of Computer Programming" are classic. He is also renowned for his development of TeX and METAFONT. In 1996, Knuth won the prestigious Kyoto Prize, considered to be the nearest equivalent to a Nobel Prize in computer science..
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A volume in Research in Mathematics Education Series Editor Barbara J. Dougherty, University of Mississippi This volume contains the proceedings of the First International Curriculum Conference sponsored by the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC). The CSMC is one of the National Science Foundation Centers for Learning and Teaching (Award No. ESI-0333879). The countries-China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore (in alphabetical order, which also happens to be the order of their populations)-have each been in the news because of their performance on international tests and/or their economic performance and potential. They also have centralized education ministries that create a single mathematics curriculum framework followed in the entire country..
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The papers for these proceedings were peer reviewed. Bayesian inference and maximum entropy methods provide a framework for analyzing very complicated data sets. The areas of application range from signal processing to thermodynamics. Maximum entropy is a theoretical method used to develop data when little information is available. Image enhancement of unclear astronomical data and medical images can be clarified using these methods. The papers in this volume provide applications of these methods to problems such as acoustics, fluids, thermodynamics, information theory, signal processing, astrophysics, medical imaging, proteins, pattern classification, and character recognition.

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