Magic, Science and Civilization - J. Bronowski

In this humane and witty book the late Jacob Bronowski focuses on a special moment in human history: a moment during the Renaissance when science and the arts rose together because man had ceased to believe in magic. From that time onward, Jacob Bronowski declares, man has been undeniably a scientific animal.
Bronowski-scientist, historian, philosopher, and author of the widely-read The Ascent of Man-defines magic as the belief in a mysterious second logic of events which is different from the everyday logic of nature. He shows how the magical view of the world crumbled in the wake of such brilliant thinkers as Copernicus and Kepler. However, Bronowski notes that insidious traces of the magical mentality are still with us-in contemporary pseudo-scientists and opponents of science, and in all those who try to command the world by some formula which is other than the truth.
The aims of science are wholly different, as Bronowski demonstrates. From Copernicus to Einstein and beyond, scientists have used a continually evolving strategy to construct a unitary picture of the world, a foundation for the specifically human strategy that bases action on plans, and plans on knowledge. Engaging in a spirited defense of scientists and science, Bronowski notes that the greatest achievements of modern times have come from thinkers who held a simple objective: to ask ourselves questions about man in which we display his nature as ruthlessly, but as thoroughly, as we do in the examination of any other species.
In the end, Bronowski concedes, there is not the slightest danger that science will ever discover the laws of nature. What matters is the ceaseless and uplifting search for a unified culture. His prescriptions for the humane pursuit of knowledge will interest anyone who is curious about the dimensions of science.
Hard cover

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