Science & Technology

An Interview with Philosopher of Science David Harriman

Philosopher of science David Harriman discusses his new book, The Logical Leap, in which he presents Leonard Peikoff’s theory of induction; the Falling Apple Science Institute; and the future of science and science education. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450, 2nd ed., by David C. Lindberg

Reviewed by Frederick Seiler

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Norman Borlaug: The Man Who Taught People To Feed Themselves

Audra Hilse

Tells the story of a little-known scientist whose independence, innovations, and passion for his work spawned an agricultural revolution that saved hundreds of millions of people from starvation. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall

Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, by Neil Shubin

Reviewed by David H. Mirman

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Newton and the Counterfeiter: the Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist, by Thomas Levenson

Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science, by Ian Plimer

Reviewed by Gus Van Horn

Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed, by Christopher C. Horner

Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Energy at the Speed of Thought:
The Original Alternative Energy Market

Alex Epstein

Surveys the history of the U.S. energy industry, with special emphasis on oil as the lifeblood of the modern world and on freedom as the condition that enabled oilmen to make it flow. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Net Neutrality: Toward a Stupid Internet (accessible for free)

Raymond C. Niles

Focuses on the principle of property rights as it applies to the Internet in the face of increasing calls for government controls of this, as yet, relatively free market. Read the article.

Demystifying Newton: The Force Behind the Genius

Gena Gorlin

Presents key evidence in support of the basic motive that drove Isaac Newton to decode the nature of the physical world, and leaves the widely accepted Freudian view of his motive wanting. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Errors in Inductive Reasoning

David Harriman

Examines several illustrative cases in which scientists failed to employ the principles of inductive logic properly and thereby arrived at faulty conclusions. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Proof of the Atomic Theory

David Harriman

Surveys the observations, experiments, and generalizations that led to the discovery and validation of the atomic theory of matter; and, using that process of validation as an example, outlines the three criteria that are essential to the proof of any broad theory. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible only to subscribers).

Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution

Keith Lockitch

Surveys Darwin’s education, work experience, expeditions, and inquiries; examines his observation-based, hands-on approach to gathering data from which to draw conclusions; and highlights the objectivity and truth of his consequent theory of evolution. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Isaac Newton: Discoverer of Universal Laws

David Harriman

Examines key aspects of Newton’s discoveries, shows how he embraced and employed the scientific context established by giants who came before him (such as Galileo and Kepler), and indicates how he rose to even greater heights of explanation through a breathtaking unity of observation, experimentation, conceptual expansion, concept formation, generalization, induction. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Induction and Experimental Method

David Harriman

Examines the key experiments involved in Galileo’s kinematics and Newton’s optics, identifies the essential methods by which these scientists achieved their discoveries, and illustrates the principle that induction is inherent in valid conceptualization. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

The 19th-Century Atomic War

David Harriman

Demonstrates the power of philosophy in the field of physics by presenting the 19th-century experimental evidence in support of the atomic theory, and by showing how 19th-century physicists—in the grips of post-Kantian philosophy—belligerently dismissed the evidence and steadfastly denied the existence of atoms. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Enlightenment Science and Its Fall

David Harriman

Examines the profound philosophical history surrounding the rise and fall of reason as the recognized method of scientific inquiry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).