无知：它怎样驱动科学（牛津读物） 英文原版 Ignorance ：How It Drives Science Stuart Firestein

基本信息

By (author) Stuart Firestein

Format Hardback | 208 pages

Dimensions 136 x 182 x 21mm | 264g

Publication date 20 Jul 2012

Publisher Oxford University Press Inc

Publication City/Country New York, United States

Language English

ISBN10 0199828075

ISBN13 9780199828074

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

内容简介

科学的探索，好比在黑屋子里寻找黑猫，有时候屋子里也可能根本没有猫。对于科学而言，已知主要是用来通向无知的。科学家的职能是利用这些已知来提出新的问题——推测存在一只新的黑猫。

TED的主讲人之一斯图尔特·法尔斯坦教授，用《无知：它怎样驱动科学》讲述科学探索中稀奇古怪的精妙时刻。

本书描绘的，是在黑屋子里抓黑猫的场景，作者将这个比方形容科学发展的推动力：缺乏有关某物的事实、理解、洞察或澄清，在集体层面上存在某一环节知识的空白，在此情况下，没有数据，或者现有数据法自圆其说，法归纳成一个合乎逻辑的解释，不能被用来预测或描述某物或某事。这就是有知识的知、有知觉的知、有见地的知。它引导我们提出更好的问题，这是得出更好答案的第一步。

Knowledge is a big subject, says Stuart Firestein, but ignorance is a bigger one. And it is ignorance-not knowledge-that is the true engine of science.

Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and getting things done. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and there may not be a cat in the room. The process is more hit-or-miss than you might imagine, with much stumbling and groping after phantoms. But it is exactly this "not knowing," this puzzling over thorny questions or inexplicable data, that gets

researchers into the lab early and keeps them there late, the thing that propels them, the very driving force of science. Firestein shows how scientists use ignorance to program their work, to identify what should be done, what the next steps are, and where they should concentrate their energies. And

he includes a catalog of how scientists use ignorance, consciously or unconsciously-a remarkable range of approaches that includes looking for connections to other research, revisiting apparently settled questions, using small questions to get at big ones, and tackling a problem simply out of curiosity. The book concludes with four case histories-in cognitive psychology, theoretical physics, astronomy, and neuroscience-that provide a feel for the nuts and bolts of ignorance, the day-to-day

battle that goes on in scientific laboratories and in scientific minds with questions that range from the quotidian to the profound.

Turning the conventional idea about science on its head, Ignorance opens a new window on the true nature of research. It is a must-read for anyone curious about science.

作者简介

斯图尔特·法尔斯坦（Stuart Firestein），哥伦比亚大学生物系教授，系主任。讲授神经系统科学，其实验室研究哺乳动物的嗅觉神经元。是美国著名新闻博客网站The Huffington Post的写手，也常年为《连线》《科学美国人》等杂志撰稿，致力于让科学走近公众，身任阿尔弗雷德·P·斯隆基金会支持的公众理解科学项目的顾问。获得2011年哥伦比亚大学伦费斯特杰出教师奖。2012年，当选为美国科学促进会会员。

Stuart Firestein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where his highly popular course on ignorance invites working scientists to come talk to students each week about what they don't know. Dedicated to promoting science to a public audience, he serves as an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program for the Public Understanding of Science and was awarded the 2011 Lenfest

Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching.

书籍目录

Chapter 1. A Short View of Ignorance ; Chapter 2. Finding Out ; Chapter 3. Limits, Uncertainty, Impossibility, and Other Minor Problems ; Chapter 4. Unpredicting ; Chapter 5. The Quality of Ignorance ; Chapter 6. Ignorance in Action: Case Histories ; Chapter 7. Ignorance beyond the Lab