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Science and the Modern World

Alfred North Whitehead

It is fortunate that in the twentieth century, science and philosophy are beginning to be united in the same person as they were in the seventeenth century before their fatal divorce occurred. Prof. Whitehead's latest book cries out to be read and re-read and meditated upon (and to that end if possible possessed) by every man of science who is not content to live merely in his own special‘; groove of routine ’ and is concerned in the trend and tendency of science as a whole; and by every philosopher who desires, as he must, to keep himself in contact with the thoughts of science. It is a work not only of the first importance but also of great beauty. Apart from the vivid writing, the reader's delight arises from two sources: in the first place, from the rapid characterisation of the various epochs into which Prof. Whitehead divides the history of modern scientific thought; and secondly, from his method of pointing out in each epoch just how the central thought of the epoch bears, in the way of contribution or of defect, upon the central thought of the present as the author conceives it. The poet prefiguring him wrote: ‘ and as he works, the industrious bee computes his time as well as we.’ One result of this procedure is that while the bulk of each historical chapter is simple and luminous reading, each chapter contains a few pages which demand the closest attention, but work with cumulative preparation towards the dramatic outcome. - Summary by S Alexander