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Engineering and the Ultimate: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Order and Design in Nature and Craft
The discipline of engineering presumes certain foundational truths that are not reducible to mathematical formulas. It presupposes certain things about creativity, beauty, and abstraction in order to operate effectively. In short, engineering relies on philosophy. Conversely, philosophy can draw profound truths from principles derived from engineering experience. Engineering and the Ultimate crosses boundaries between a wide variety of disciplines to find truths both new and old that can be transformative to modern thought and practice.
Hardcover versions can be found at most online bookstores.
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Naturalism and Its Alternatives in Scientific Methodologies
Many volumes have addressed the question of whether or not naturalism is a required part of scientific methodology. However, few, if any, go any further into the many concerns that arise from a rejection of naturalism. If methodological naturalism is rejected, what replaces it? If science is not naturalistic, what defines science? If naturalism is rejected, what is gained and what is lost? How does the practice of science change? What new avenues would be available, and how would they be investigated?
This volume is divided into three parts. The first part considers the question of methodological naturalism and its role in the demarcation problem - deciding what is science and what isn't. The second part discusses the impacts that different boundaries have on scientific thought in a general way. Finally, the third part looks at how non-naturalistic methodologies can be beneficially incorporated into specific fields, and how in a few cases non-naturalistic methodologies have already been successfully incorporated into certain fields.
Hardcover versions can be found at most online bookstores.