Attractions Books

This is a curious book written by a man who really ought to know what he is talking about. Professor Bauer was first a scientist himself (in electrochemistry), then a college administrator, and most recently the Editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. He is also the author of several books, including Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. He is also an avowed believer in the existence of the Loch Ness monster (he wrote a book on it) and a defender of quasi- or pseudo-scientific ventures from the debunking of people such as those at, e.g., the Skeptical Inquirer.

Bauer's main thesis here is that scientific knowledge is not absolute, and indeed that scientific knowledge at any given time in history has been wrong. I believe he is correct in this assertion. His extrapolation that scientific knowledge is not entirely accurate today is also something I would not want to argue against. But his understanding of the purpose and goal of science, and his understanding of the method and function of science seems at times a bit Quixotic.

One of the charges he makes is that the common perception of the scientific method itself is wrong. He delineates this on page 35 as "hypothesize, test, accept-or-reject." I am astonished that he considers THIS the scientific method. (After all, he wrote a book on the subject.) He is leaving out the first two essential steps, namely that of "observation" and "questioning." First a scientist observes. The scientist (or anybody) sees something happening, or sees something of interest, or hears something, or smells something. It could be anything at all. That observation then raises a question in the scientist's mind. The scientist asks why? How did this come about? What caused this? What IS this?

So we have two steps ignored by Bauer, after which we do have the hypothesis, that is, the idea or theory or guess as to what this is or why it happened, etc. Then comes the testing of the hypothesis, and then the sharing of the results with others, and finally the testing by others for conformation.

That's the scientific method, and it is really just common sense codified. The reason that it has proven so revolutionary, and has brought about the advanced technology we enjoy today (technology is a result of science) is that it differs fundamentally from the very poor methods that previously held sway in human history, mainly that of following authority and accepting authoritative knowledge without question. By the way, the usual complaint made about the scientific method (and Bauer makes this complaint as well) is that it is not actually how scientists work. Instead of working from observations to a hypothesis, sometimes they have the hypothesis first and then look for ways to support it. True, but humans can be creative; or indeed, the observations might be purely mental, or even subconscious.

Another misunderstanding implicit in Bauer's book is the idea that scientists think science is working toward some sort of objective truth, or that there are absolute laws of nature that science is incrementally getting closer and closer to unraveling. But what science really does is extend our ability to manipulate the environment to our advantage (or in some cases, to our disadvantage). Science allows us to see further into the past, into the cosmos, into the very small. The idea that science could actually discover the ultimate laws of the universe is really a popular misunderstanding not believed in by most scientists today. In a sense it's a holdover from the "clockwork universe" concept derived from Newtonian mechanics that ended with relativity and quantum mechanics.

Belief in absolute knowledge or ultimate law is anathema to science, and is instead the stuff of religion. I believe Bauer knows this, but for some reason didn't find it convenient to present that view in this book. I wonder why. I also wonder why he believes in the Loch Ness monster. He mentions Nessie several times in the text, but never gives a hint as to why he would believe in something seemingly so unlikely. Perhaps he is saving that for a revision of his opus on the subject from 1986.

The really strange thing about this book is that sometimes Professor Bauer indicates that he does understand what science is about, as for example on page 68 he writes, "Scientific theories are very useful, but they are not true." This is exactly right. More saliently, we can add, even if they were "true" how would we know it? We only know what works, what is "useful." Science works and is very useful indeed. In fact, one of the glaring failings of this book is to spend two hundred and thirty-some pages denigrating science without giving the slightest hint of anything better, or indeed of anything nearly as good.

So what he's done is set up a straw man (a misconception of what science is, its methods, and its presumption) and then shoot it down. This is a familiar tactic usually employed by New Age pundits or postmodernist socialists. It is rare in professors of chemistry.

Despite all this I think Bauer makes many valid points and serves a public good in drawing our attention to the limitations of science. Clearly science in not in any sense a way of deriving concepts of good and bad or distinguishing right from wrong. Sometimes it is good to be reminded of that.

Adam and Imogen meet at the local cinema once a month and have hot sex in the empty balcony section. At one such encounter, there is something a little different. Could these trysts be developing into something more meaningful?

Feature Attraction grabbed my attention at the beginning, but as the story went on, there were a few scenes that didn't make sense to me and this stopped me from appreciating the story fully. If you can get past these instances, you might enjoy Feature Attraction.

Zayn
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I read the wonderful book "The Problem of the Earth's Shape from Newton to Clairaut : The Rise of Mathematical Science in Eighteenth-Century Paris and the Fall of 'Normal' Science " by Greenberg and thought it a good idea to read the old classic by Todhunter. I was very glad to find the volumes back in print and ordered both volumes. Well, good to have them, but ... The pages of the book look as if mediocre xerox technique was used to produce photocopies. You can even see xeroxed fuzzes on some pages! The binding is miles away from former Dover paperbacks (it seems to be glued together) so that I fear opening the pages too much. I one word: This is not what I would understand being a "reprint".

Description from the book back cover:

Susanna Bryce-Jones had always survived on her wits, believing her petite mother and everyone else when they hinted she would never get anywhere on her looks. As branch manager of a bank, and with the steady Edmond as her husband-to-be, she should have counted herself fortunate - but she was bored! And the boredom led to a night of moon-madness when she slipped away from a party into the woods and became for a short while the Greek goddess she had no idea she could be. She would have retreated into her lady-bank-manager shell again immediately - if Jackson Arne hadn't entered her fantasy, seen her transformation, and refused to let the real Susanna slip away ...

I came across this book while traveling in Tennessee, doing Civil War research. Perhaps because I had the Civil War on my mind, I was attracted to the book. The subtitle, "The Romantic Attraction of Defeated Yet Unvanquished Men and Movements", also caught my attention. On a personal level, I hoped perhaps I would find inspiration to deal with my own "lost causes".

The book is basically a collection of quotes and biographical essays organized around twelve themes: tradition, work, mercy, honor, chivalry, courage, faith, wisdom, truthfulness, manhood, vision, and domesticity.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to understand why the authors/compilers of this book chose to place many of the quotes in their respective sections. I really wanted to enjoy and appreciate more of the quotes than I did. Those that meant the most to me were found in the sections on courage and wisdom.

Each biographical essay was selected to illustrate the theme of the section in which it appeared. Like the accompanying quotes, I also had mixed feelings regarding the biographical sketches. Some, such as those on Andrew Lytle (chivalry) and Anna Bowden (courage), were very interesting, but others were too long or too academic, losing me quickly in obscure philosophical territory. The authors chose a distinctly Christian slant with their selection and sketching of biographees; I feel this decision on their part should have been highlighted up front, and even presented on the cover of the book, if this was their intention.

While I did not find the inspiration I desired, this book will find a place on my shelf, and I expect to use some of the quotes I encountered.

I was surprised to see that various plants and animals that are all over central FL are missing - a good example is the Quaker parrot. There were a few other animals I was interested in finding since they are omnipresent, but they were not in the book. It's OK as a '2nd source' and the drawings are of reasonable quality.

This book is very detailed on information needed to plan a vacation trip along the Oregon Coast. It's laid out by milemarker along Hwy 101, has lots of travel tips, places to stay, activities, and things to look into, such as parks, museums, etc. It has adequate lodging and dining information, although this informaiton may degrade quickly over time. Amazon promoted the book to me as a photo guide for planning a trip to photograph scenics. I would rate it a "1" on that point, as what passes for scenic photo suggestions are few in number and trivil in content.

Maybe this guy is going senile despite his massive supplementation...

This book generally covers what is known about Pheremones and human sexuality, along with its effect on other kinds of relationships (mother-child for eg).

First problem, the author writes in a VERY rambling style, sometimes repeating entire sentences verbatim on the same page. This, despite the information, is very tedious.

Second, the book uses a lot of technical jargon. One can easily figure out what is meant, but it makes reading a doubly onerous chore.

Third, the science behind pheromones is rather divided in opinion, though the author's bent is that "it works". I cannot agree or fault him there. All I can say is the jury is out, but he may well be right.

After all those caveats, the book is still definitely worth reading. Pheromones is a relatively unknown science and a reader should be grateful for anything they can get. The amount of information is great, and it makes a strong case for unconscious (undetectable) smells being a major lubricant of human interactions (especially sexuality).

There is a need for more appreciation of the role of argument (debate, the dialectic) in creating knowledge and thus in the education process. Do not confuse argument with quarrel, nor think knowledge only comes from empirics or logical thinking.

James Crosswhite's book is a must for anyone interested in education, in particular how the dialectic process educates. I was interested in the book becuase I teach postgrads research methods for social inquiry. I learnt a lot.

Professor Crosswhite has a good philosophy background which he applies to clearly exlain how argument works and enables good (scientific) writing in essays, reports, or thesis.

Have a look, its different, its good.

Description from the book back cover:

'You'd find life much less fraught if you learned to trust people a little, Charlotte. You're always so ready to believe the worst of others ...' But Charlotte Spencer was scared to let herself follow her instincts where Oliver Tennant was concerned. How could she respond to him as an attractive man when he was also a business rival who might be playing a deeper game? In any case, what had a country bumpkin like herself to offer a sophisticated man about town? Better by far to put all thoughts of love aside ...