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The Common Sense of Science
Jacob Bronowski was, with Kenneth Clarke, the greatest popularizer of serious ideas in Britain between the mid 1950s and the early 1970s. Trained as a mathematician, he was equally at home with painting and physics, and wrote a series of brilliant books that tried to break down the barriers between 'the two cultures'. He denounced 'the destructive modern prejudice that art and science are different and somehow incompatible interests'. He wrote a fine book on William Blake while running the National Coal Board's research establishment.
The Common Sense of Science, first published in 1951, is a vivid attempt to explain in ordinary language how science is done and how scientists think. He isolates three creative ideas that have been central to science: the idea of order, the idea of causes and the idea of chance. For Bronowski, these were common-sense ideas that became immensely powerful and productive when applied to a vision of the world that broke with the medieval notion of a world of things ordered according to their ideal natures. Instead, Galileo, Huyghens and Newton and their contemporaries imagined 'a world of events running in a steady mechanism of before and after'. We are still living with the consequences of this search for order and causality within the facts that the world presents to us.
The Common Sense of Science, first published in 1951, is a vivid attempt to explain in ordinary language how science is done and how scientists think. He isolates three creative ideas that have been central to science: the idea of order, the idea of causes and the idea of chance. For Bronowski, these were common-sense ideas that became immensely powerful and productive when applied to a vision of the world that broke with the medieval notion of a world of things ordered according to their ideal natures. Instead, Galileo, Huyghens and Newton and their contemporaries imagined 'a world of events running in a steady mechanism of before and after'. We are still living with the consequences of this search for order and causality within the facts that the world presents to us.
154 pages, Hardcover
First published September 12, 1951
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330 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Bronowski
50books221followersJacob Bronowski was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.
In 1950, Bronowski was given the Taung child's fossilized skull and asked to try, using his statistical skills, to combine a measure of the size of the skull's teeth with their shape in order to discriminate them from the teeth of apes. Work on this turned his interests towards the human biology of humanity's intellectual products.
In 1967 Bronowski delivered the six Silliman Memorial Lectures at Yale University and chose as his subject the role of imagination and symbolic language in the progress of scientific knowledge. Transcripts of the lectures were published posthumously in 1978 as The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination and remain in print.
He first became familiar to the British public through appearances on the BBC television version of The Brains Trust in the late 1950s. His ability to answer questions on many varied subjects led to an offhand reference in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus where one character states that "He knows everything." However Bronowski is best remembered for his thirteen part series The Ascent of Man (1973), a documentary about the history of human beings through scientific endeavour. This project was intended to parallel art historian Kenneth Clark's earlier "personal view" series Civilisation (1969) which had covered cultural history.
During the making of The Ascent of Man, Bronowski was interviewed by the popular British chat show host Michael Parkinson. Parkinson later recounted that Bronowski's description of a visit to Auschwitz—Bronowski had lost many family members during the Nazi era—was one of Parkinson's most memorable interviews.
Jacob Bronowski married Rita Coblentz in 1941. The couple had four children, all daughters, the eldest being the British academic Lisa Jardine and another being the filmmaker Judith Bronowski. He died in 1974 of a heart attack in East Hampton, New York a year after The Ascent of Man was completed, and was buried in the western side of London's Highgate Cemetery, near the entrance.
In 1950, Bronowski was given the Taung child's fossilized skull and asked to try, using his statistical skills, to combine a measure of the size of the skull's teeth with their shape in order to discriminate them from the teeth of apes. Work on this turned his interests towards the human biology of humanity's intellectual products.
In 1967 Bronowski delivered the six Silliman Memorial Lectures at Yale University and chose as his subject the role of imagination and symbolic language in the progress of scientific knowledge. Transcripts of the lectures were published posthumously in 1978 as The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination and remain in print.
He first became familiar to the British public through appearances on the BBC television version of The Brains Trust in the late 1950s. His ability to answer questions on many varied subjects led to an offhand reference in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus where one character states that "He knows everything." However Bronowski is best remembered for his thirteen part series The Ascent of Man (1973), a documentary about the history of human beings through scientific endeavour. This project was intended to parallel art historian Kenneth Clark's earlier "personal view" series Civilisation (1969) which had covered cultural history.
During the making of The Ascent of Man, Bronowski was interviewed by the popular British chat show host Michael Parkinson. Parkinson later recounted that Bronowski's description of a visit to Auschwitz—Bronowski had lost many family members during the Nazi era—was one of Parkinson's most memorable interviews.
Jacob Bronowski married Rita Coblentz in 1941. The couple had four children, all daughters, the eldest being the British academic Lisa Jardine and another being the filmmaker Judith Bronowski. He died in 1974 of a heart attack in East Hampton, New York a year after The Ascent of Man was completed, and was buried in the western side of London's Highgate Cemetery, near the entrance.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 7, 2020
الكتاب قديم نسبيا لكنه يحمل أفكارا شديدة الراهنية خاصة في مواجهة النظرة العلموية.
November 28, 2017
يحاول الكاتب في سياق فصول الكتاب أن يفند الآلية العلمية كما نعرفها ونعتادها اليوم، ويرى أن تلك الأفكار التي نعرفها عن العلم اليوم لم تكن بديهية فيما قبل. ويرى أن التاريخ يقوم باختبار تلك الآليات على الدوام، وأن التمسك بطريقة واحدة لفهم الآلية العلمية دون محاولة نقدها أو تفنيدها يهدم جوهر العلم. ثم يحاول الكاتب الدفع بفكرة المصادفة كأساس فلسفي لتفسير الآلية العلمية الحديثة، على أنه لا يرفض مبدأ السببية بالكامل.
كما يرى الكاتب العلم على أنه أداة محايدة تقتصر مهامها على مساعدة الإنسان على فهم طبيعة ماحوله، وأن العلم كان وسيلتنا ونتاج جهودنا في محاولاتنا الدائمة للسيطرة على الطبيعة.
للكاتب أسلوب أدبي مميز استطاع المترجم ابرازه بشكل رائع، ويستعرض الكاتب في ثنايا فصوله العديد من النظريات العلمية التي سيستمتع بها القارئ غير المتخصص.
كما يرى الكاتب العلم على أنه أداة محايدة تقتصر مهامها على مساعدة الإنسان على فهم طبيعة ماحوله، وأن العلم كان وسيلتنا ونتاج جهودنا في محاولاتنا الدائمة للسيطرة على الطبيعة.
للكاتب أسلوب أدبي مميز استطاع المترجم ابرازه بشكل رائع، ويستعرض الكاتب في ثنايا فصوله العديد من النظريات العلمية التي سيستمتع بها القارئ غير المتخصص.
November 14, 2019
Title is derived from the book, “The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences� which inspires Bronowski’s work. An interesting book published decades before his landmark TV series, “The Ascent of Man� and it covers most of the same ground. His definition of science is a human activity that explicitly combines deliberate observational habits with rational thinking and logic, “Science is fact and thought giving strength to each other (p. 99).� He writes about the strong connection between art and science and in both cases writes about we derive meaning and value from their pursuits. I think overall he confuses the connection between science and technology even at time interchanging them. This work appears dated but the reader can still find meaningful reflections on the nature of science.
December 7, 2014
can be proved as a stone turner for those who are looking forward to it. but who have already there this is simply not a book for them. lacked detail work and example. for me this book proved as a slight mental work.
March 23, 2021
كتاب ركيك...
له عندي مثالب، لا يستحق ان اكثر الكلام عنه، فهو كتاب قديم كتب بعصر مزدحم بعبارات كالحرية والتقدم والخ الخ.
بدأ الكتاب قائلاً: العلم والادب مترابطان وثيقان ببعض لا يمكن الفصل بينهما
وختم الكتاب بنفس الجملة ولم يضفي شيئاً جديداً بتا
له عندي مثالب، لا يستحق ان اكثر الكلام عنه، فهو كتاب قديم كتب بعصر مزدحم بعبارات كالحرية والتقدم والخ الخ.
بدأ الكتاب قائلاً: العلم والادب مترابطان وثيقان ببعض لا يمكن الفصل بينهما
وختم الكتاب بنفس الجملة ولم يضفي شيئاً جديداً بتا
March 26, 2016
I agree with most of Bronowski and have enjoyed reading several of his books - hence, he is a great thinker. This argument is for the most part well supported.
February 16, 2022
هناك خلل في الترجمة او في عمق الموضوع
لم إفهم شيء
لم إفهم شيء
June 23, 2020
I agree with a common trend in the reviews; This book is a bit dated, but I think there are some timeless truths within the text itself. As a physicist, I find the philosophical probing of science as we know it and as it has evolved over the past 150 years important. Primarily due to the nature of science and physics itself to be void of contemplation beyond absolute truths and understanding on a mathematical and structural level.
On that note, I think for me the most moving and intriguing parts tend to be towards the end.
Pg. 152: "I have seen in my lifetime an abyss open in the human mind: a gulf between the endeavor to be man, and the relish in being brute."
Pg 149: "The trend of science is made by the needs of society: Navigation before the eighteenth century, manufacture thereafter; and in our age I believe the liberation of personality..."
I think that this book probes at the undercurrent issue in our society today. The division between facts and truth with culture and emotions; And the issues that arise from the lack of properly connecting the two sides of the human personality; Logic, Reason, with emotion and Art.
I'd suggest reading this if that topic interests you. Not the hardest book to consume, there are definitely parts that read more like a retelling of history and the evolution. But I personally didn't mind it, for to come to great conclusions you need to guide your reader through the historical lens that has shaped the past.
On that note, I think for me the most moving and intriguing parts tend to be towards the end.
Pg. 152: "I have seen in my lifetime an abyss open in the human mind: a gulf between the endeavor to be man, and the relish in being brute."
Pg 149: "The trend of science is made by the needs of society: Navigation before the eighteenth century, manufacture thereafter; and in our age I believe the liberation of personality..."
I think that this book probes at the undercurrent issue in our society today. The division between facts and truth with culture and emotions; And the issues that arise from the lack of properly connecting the two sides of the human personality; Logic, Reason, with emotion and Art.
I'd suggest reading this if that topic interests you. Not the hardest book to consume, there are definitely parts that read more like a retelling of history and the evolution. But I personally didn't mind it, for to come to great conclusions you need to guide your reader through the historical lens that has shaped the past.
December 12, 2022
كتاب قديم في وقته كان جيدا
August 10, 2012
A fine book, though the last chapter is conspicuously out of date.
June 25, 2018
"ان للقوانين العلمية هدفان الاول ان تكون صحيحة والثاني ان تكون مفيدة "
في تسعة فصول يتحدث جاكوب برونوفسكي حول فلسفة تاريخ العلم ومدي وكيفية وضرورة ومواكبة العلم وتغيرة الياتة ومعطياتة ونتائجة عبر الازمنة المختلفة
عبر زمن الحروب وحتي في عصر الثورة الصناعية متخذا من العلم ثلاث افكار رئيسية فكرة النظام وفكرة السببية وفكرة المصادفة
فالعلم هو الادراك " والادراك الصحيح ليس هو الذي تفرضة علي الوجود بل هو الذي نستمدة من الوجود ذاتة "
في تسعة فصول يتحدث جاكوب برونوفسكي حول فلسفة تاريخ العلم ومدي وكيفية وضرورة ومواكبة العلم وتغيرة الياتة ومعطياتة ونتائجة عبر الازمنة المختلفة
عبر زمن الحروب وحتي في عصر الثورة الصناعية متخذا من العلم ثلاث افكار رئيسية فكرة النظام وفكرة السببية وفكرة المصادفة
فالعلم هو الادراك " والادراك الصحيح ليس هو الذي تفرضة علي الوجود بل هو الذي نستمدة من الوجود ذاتة "
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