[MD] Science and the MOQ

[David M]

why not have the full set:


"Maxwell is advocating nothing less than a revolution (based on reason, not 
on religious or Marxist doctrine) in our intellectual goals and methods of 
inquiry ... There are altogether too many symptoms of malaise in our 
science-based society for Nicholas Maxwell's diagnosis to be ignored."
Professor Christopher Longuet-Higgins, Nature.

"a strong effort is needed if one is to stand back and clearly state the 
objections to the whole enormous tangle of misconceptions which surround the 
notion of science to-day. Maxwell has made that effort in this powerful, 
profound and important book."
Dr. Mary Midgley, University Quarterly.

"The essential idea is really so simple, so transparently right ... It is a 
profound book, refreshingly unpretentious, and deserves to be read, refined 
and implemented."
Dr. Stewart Richards, Annals of Science.

"Maxwell's book is a major contribution to current work on the intellectual 
status and social functions of science ... [It] comes as an enormous breath 
of fresh air, for here is a philosopher of science with enough backbone to 
offer root and branch criticism of scientific practices and to call for 
their reform."
Dr. David Collingridge, Social Studies of Science.

"Maxwell has, I believe, written a very important book which will resonate 
in the years to come. For those who are not inextricably and cynically 
locked into the power and career structure of academia with its 
government-industrial-military connections, this is a book to read, think 
about, and act on."
Dr. Brian Easlea, Journal of Applied Philosophy.

"This book is a provocative and sustained argument for a 'revolution', a 
call for a 'sweeping, holistic change in the overall aims and methods of 
institutionalized inquiry and education, from knowledge to wisdom' ... 
Maxwell offers solid and convincing arguments for the exciting and important 
thesis that rational research and debate among professionals concerning 
values and their realization is both possible and ought to be undertaken."
Professor Jeff Foss, Canadian Philosophical Review

"Wisdom, as Maxwell's own experience shows, has been outlawed from the 
western academic and intellectual system ... In such a climate, Maxwell's 
effort to get a hearing on behalf of wisdom is indeed praiseworthy." Dr. 
Ziauddin Sardar, Inquiry

"Maxwell's argument ... is a powerful one. His critique of the underlying 
empiricism of the philosophy of knowledge is coherent and well argued, as is 
his defence of the philosophy of wisdom. Most interesting, perhaps, from a 
philosophical viewpoint, is his analysis of the social and human sciences 
and the humanities, which have always posed problems to more orthodox 
philosophers, wishing to reconcile them with the natural sciences. In 
Maxwell's schema they pose no such problems, featuring primarily ... as 
methodologies, aiding our pursuit of our diverse social and personal 
endeavours. This is an exciting and important work, which should be read by 
all students of the philosophy of science. It also provides a framework for 
historical analysis and should be of interest to all but the most blinkered 
of historians of science and philosophy."
Dr. John Hendry, British Journal for the History of Science

"Nicholas Maxwell (1984) defines freedom as 'the capacity to achieve what is 
of value in a range of circumstances'. I think this is about as good a short 
definition of freedom as could be. In particular, it appropriately leaves 
wide open the question of just what is of value. Our unique ability to 
reconsider our deepest convictions about what makes life worth living 
obliges us to take seriously the discovery that there is no palpable 
constraint on what we can consider."
Professor Daniel Dennett, Freedom Evolving

Kind regards
David M