Scientific discovery is often regarded as romantic and creative - and hence unanalyzable - whereas the everyday process of verifying discoveries is sober and more suited to analysis. Yet this fascinating exploration of how scientific work proceeds argues that however sudden the moment of discovery may seem, the discovery process can be described and modeled.
Using the methods and concepts of contemporary information-processing psychology (or cognitive science) the authors develop a series of artificial-intelligence programs that can simulate the human thought processes used to discover scientific laws. The programs - BACON, DALTON, GLAUBER, and STAHL - are all largely data-driven, that is, when presented with series of chemical or physical measurements they search for uniformities and linking elements, generating and checking hypotheses and creating new concepts as they go along.
Scientific Discovery examines the nature of scientific research and reviews the arguments for and against a normative theory of discovery; describes the evolution of the BACON programs, which discover quantitative empirical laws and invent new concepts; presents programs that discover laws in qualitative and quantitative data; and ties the results together, suggesting how a combined and extended program might find research problems, invent new instruments, and invent appropriate problem representations. Numerous prominent historical examples of discoveries from physics and chemistry are used as tests for the programs and anchor the discussion concretely in the history of science.
Pat Langley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. Herbert Simon is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Computer Science, and Philosophy at Carnegie-Mellon University. Gary L. Bradshaw is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Jan M. Zytkow is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Wichita State University.

亚当•斯密于1776年提出了一个观点，彻底颠覆了传统的经济学理论。他宣称，人们追逐私利的行为只受市场本身的调节，而不受政府的管控。这种追逐私利的行为就像一只看不见的手，将对市场进行自动的调节，从而使整个社会最大程度地获益。《捆住市场的手》这本书回顾了亚当•斯密之后两百年的经济学者是怎样挑战或再次肯定斯密的理论的。一些学者坚持认为，在市场不稳定的情况下，需要政府代替整个社会对市场进行干预。另一些学者则认为，政府的干预最终会给市场和社会造成损害。
斯蒂夫•G. 梅德玛探讨的这个主题，200年来，有可能是现代经济学领域中被人们争论最多的一个议题。梅德玛详尽地回顾了19世纪40年代到20世纪50年代市场失灵理论，以及随后对市场失灵理论进行批驳的芝加哥学派和弗吉尼亚学派的观点。从约翰•密尔到亨利•西季威克和庇古所代表的剑桥传统的福利经济学派，再到对剑桥学派提出挑战的罗纳德•科斯，最后是重新肯定亚当•斯密学说的批评家们，梅德玛向我们详细列举了关于市场控制的各种争议。他在书中向我们展示了，在边际革命之后——和亚当•斯密之前的前古典主义学者一样——新古典主义经济学家相信政府可以有效地缓解利己主义所带来的不良后果，芝加哥和弗吉尼亚学派则严厉地批驳了这种观点，证明利己主义同样能够影响政府，并在诸多并不完善的替代方案中为人们提供了一种相对合理的选择。
《捆住市场的手》还描写了政府是怎样一直致力于从经济上解决利己主义对公众利益造成的负面影响，及其采取的具体措施。
专家推荐
亚当•斯密认为市场机制相当于一只看不见的手，这种机制能成功地约束人们自利的行为，自18世纪后期以来，亚当•斯密的这种理论已经成为我们的政策争论的中心……梅德玛的《捆住市场的手》中详细描述了亚当•斯密时代至今200年间，人们就他的理论进行的争论……我向读者强烈推荐《捆住市场的手》。
——R.B.埃米特，《选择》杂志
《捆住市场的手》向读者介绍了自古希腊以来（特别是自亚当•斯密的时代以来）人类社会经济福利的演化情况，在某种程度上，这本书具有很强的专业性。但同时……我发现《捆住市场的手》也是一本发人深省的优秀著作。在福利、市场失灵和国家作用等诸多问题上，不同年代的人在不同角度上对福利的理解和评价的确能给当代人许多有益的启示。
——黛安•科伊尔，《开明经济学家》
这是一本出色的著作。它既涉及了经济学中的一个重要议题，文笔又引人入胜，让人丝毫不觉得枯燥。
——彼得•格鲁尼维根，《经济史回顾》杂志
这是一本引人入胜的好书，有趣、博学、公正，文字流畅。总之，我从这本书里学到了很多。
——丹尼斯•奥布莱恩，英国杜伦大学名誉教授
这是一部能使许多读者感兴趣的著作，简明易懂，观点清晰，它甚至能吸引一部分通常对历史不感兴趣的经济学家。梅德玛在书中详细讲述了不同时代的经济学家对利己主义的不同态度，以及它怎样改变了人们对于政府和市场的认知。
——罗杰.E.贝克豪斯，英国伯明翰大学

Important study focuses on the revival and assimilation of ancient Greek mathematics in the 13th–16th centuries, via Arabic science, and the 16th-century development of symbolic algebra. This brought about the crucial change in the concept of number that made possible modern science — in which the symbolic "form" of a mathematical statement is completely inseparable from its "content" of physical meaning. Includes a translation of Vieta's Introduction to the Analytical Art. 1968 edition. Bibliography.

法国著名作家莫罗阿在这里探讨了人的一生中所遇到的一系列问题：爱情、婚姻、家庭、友谊以及政治和经济等等。他以小说家的丰富经验，传记家深刻的观察，对人生习见的种种难题讨论得深入浅出，分析得鞭辟入里，既显示了实际的明智，又不乏理论的智慧和丰美的文采。作为西方作家，作者对人生病态所开药方未必都能使我们折服，但是他主张为人注重情操，强调积极面对人生，而又不尚空论，不说假话...显然是值得提供给关心人生问题的读者思索和咀嚼的。

本书是中央研究院院士丘成桐，为纪念其父丘镇英教授对其幼年的庭训及思想启发，集结丘镇英先生（公元1912-1963，先后执教于香江书院、崇基书院等校）生前的专著、发表论文、讲稿、诗词联语的著作全集。内容含括史学、文学与哲学三大畛域，尤其是《西洋哲学史》部分，解述西方自希腊起各种哲学流派的旨要、同异，说明上古、中世、近代三大时期的哲学内涵，十分精彩。书中无论是感怀抒情的诗文，或是初步规划之教学讲义，无一不是见证时代的脚注及生命的学问。

《柏拉图的理想国》是法国当代著名哲学家阿兰•巴迪欧最新的长篇哲学著作。在本书中，巴迪欧模仿柏拉图《理想国》的对话录写作手法，将《理想国》原书中的古希腊背景换成现代社会，并将其中的智者和事件都换成现代的人物及事件，以全新的角度诠释了古代的经典哲学，赋予了《理想国》以现代意义。
“这件事整整持续了六年。
为什么要借柏拉图做这项几乎有些偏执的工作？因为，出于一个明白无误的理由，今日我们尤其需要柏拉图：他将我们引向某个信念，即我们在世上的自我治理意味着某个通向绝对状态的入口已经向我们敞开
所以我将目光投向了《理想国》，希望发掘它对当代社会的重要意义。《理想国》是大师的核心著作，处理的恰好是正义的问题。我依据的是一个古希腊文本，五十四年前，我已经狂热地研究过这个文本。
我首先尝试在它的语言中完全地理解它。我全情投入，不放过任何一个细节，这是我和文本之间面对面的交锋。随后，当我认为完全理解了某个希腊文本片段后，我会写下我所获得的理解引发的一些思考和只言片语。渐渐地，出现了一些更为普遍的方法：完全自由地处理参考文献；科学方面的现代化；形象的现代化；历史的跨越；始终保持真正的、高度戏剧化的对话形式。不可避免地，我自己的思想以及——从更普遍的意义上说——当代哲学背景一直贯穿于我对柏拉图文本的加工过程中，而且可能在我无意这样做时更是如此。
这一工作的结果就是：尽管我从来没有忘记原文，甚至连细节也不曾忘记，但我所获得的结果几乎从来不是通常意义上的“翻译”。柏拉图无处不在，虽然他说的话可能没有一句得到了完全的再现。由此，我希望达到一种效果，始终接近又彻底偏离原文本。只要文本能在今日起到作用，它便能慷慨地赋予这种偏离行为以一种合法性。
归根到底，这就是文本永恒性的表现。”

This work stresses the illogical manner in which mathematics has developed, the question of applied mathematics as against 'pure' mathematics, and the challenges to the consistency of mathematics' logical structure that have occurred in the twentieth century.

《一篇读罢头飞雪，重读马克思》从现代资本与金融革命的问题出发，结合中国及世界社会政治与经济革命的漫长历史，重新叙述了马克思主义学说，以历史唯物主义方法，探寻中国千年兴衰的动因，并就当今世界经济危机、中国金融改革进行了发人深省的思考。
作者韩毓海用平实、生动甚至略带犀利的笔触，援引马克思著作中的精彩部分，充分解读了马克思对当今世界社会发展趋势以及经济危机的成功预测和判断。针对马克思的三部作品《资本论》、《法兰西内战》和《路易•波拿巴的雾月十八日》，作者引导读者沿着马克思的足迹解读资本主义、社会主义、货币、债务、道德、信用等，并反思马克思对上述问题的剖析有哪些现实指导意义，从而鞭策现代人要想看懂并解决政治、经济、社会发展问题，就要回归马克思。

以辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义的历史发展为主题，以唯物主义与形而上学的斗争为主线，描述了马克思主义的形成与历史发展。

Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99-55 b.c.) is known primarily as the Roman author of the long didactic poem "De Rerum Natura" ("On the Nature of Things"). In it, he set out to explicate the universe, embracing and refuting ideas of the great Greek philosophers. Now available in paperback, this annotated scholarly edition of the Latin text of "De Rerum Natura "has long been hailed as one of the finest editions of this monumental work. It features an introduction to Lucretius's life and work by William Ellery Leonard, an introduction to and commentary on the poem by Stanley Barney Smith, the complete Latin text with detailed annotations, and an index of ancient sources.

Why has there been such an explosion of discussion about sex in the west since the 17th century? Here, one of France's greatest intellectuals explores the evolving social, economic and political forces that have shaped our attitudes to sex. In a book that is at once controversial and seductive, Foucault describes how we are in the process of making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase of pleasure.

An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis. In its scope and itnerest it can be compared with Freud's "Totem and Taboo, the subtext Girard refutes with polemic daring, vast erudition, and a persuasiveness that leaves the reader compelled to respond, one way or another. This is the single fullest summation of Girard's ideas to date, the book by which they will stand or fall. In a dialogue with two psychiatrists (Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort), Girard probes an encyclopedic array of topics, ranging across the entire spectrum of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and cultural production. Girard's point o departure is what he calles "mimesis," the conflict that arises when human rivals compete to differentiate themselves from each other, yet succeed only in becoming more and more alike. At certain points in the life of a society, according to Girard, this mimetic conflict erupts into a crisis in which all difference dissolves in indiscriminate violence. In primitive societies, such crises were resolved by the "scapegoating mechanism," in which the community, en masse, turned on an unpremeditated victim. The repression of this collective murder and its repetition in ritual sacrifice then formed the foundations of both religion and the restored social order. How does Christianity, at once the most "sacrificial" of religions and a faith with a non-violent ideology, fit into this scheme? Girard grants Freud's point, in "Totem and Taboo, that Christianity is similar to primitive religion, but only to refute Freud--if Christ is sacrificed, Girard argues, it is not becuase God willed it, but becaus ehuman beings "wanted it. The book is not merely, or perhaps not mainly, biblical exegesis, for within its scope fall some of the most vexing problems of social history--the paradox that violance has social efficacy, the function of the scapegoat, the mechanism of anti-semitism.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) possessed one of history's great minds. The German philosopher, mathematician, and logician invented (independently of Sir Isaac Newton) calculus. His metaphysics bequeathed a set of problems and approaches that drove the course of Western philosophy, from Kant's eighteenth century until the present day. For over fifty years, the study of Leibniz has been a consistent passion for distinguished philosopher Nicholas Rescher. "On Leibniz" offers eleven of his essays, written with signature clarity, exploring the aspects of Leibniz's work and life that still resonate in the discipline of philosophy. Rescher's essays are snapshots of Leibniz, lucidly drawn case studies that explain the fundamentals of his ontology: the theory of possible worlds, the world's contingency, space-time frameworks, and intermonadic relationships. Several illuminating pieces reveal Leibniz as a substantial contributor to theories of knowledge. Discussions of his epistemology and methodology, its relationship to John Maynard Keynes and Talmudic scholarship, broaden the traditional view of Leibniz as a uniquely metaphysical thinker. Rescher also explores, in four absorbing biographical essays, Leibniz's scholarly development and professional career in historical context. As a andquot; philosopher courtierandquot; to the Hanoverian court, Leibniz was associated with the leading intellectuals and politicians of his era, including Spinoza, Huygens, Newton, Queen Sophie Charlotte, and Czar Peter the Great. A concluding essay holds up Leibniz's mode of philosophy as a role model for today's scholars. Rescher argues that many current problems can be effectivelyaddressed with principles of process philosophy along lines inspired by Leibniz's monadology. "On Leibniz" is essential reading for students of Leibniz and Rescher alike.

In the readition of the bestselling Chaos and A Brief History of Time, here is a science book with mainstream appeal. Proponents of artificial intelligence maintain that eventually a computer will be able to do everything a human mind can do, but Oxford University Professor of Mathematics Roger Penrose explains his view that there are facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Drawings throughout.
Some love it, some hate it, but The Emperor's New Mind, physicist Roger Penrose's 1989 treatise attacking the foundations of strong artificial intelligence, is crucial for anyone interested in the history of thinking about AI and consciousness. Part survey of modern physics, part exploration of the philosophy of mind, the book is not for casual readers--though it's not overly technical, it rarely pauses to let the reader catch a breath. The overview of relativity and quantum theory, written by a master, is priceless and uncontroversial. The exploration of consciousness and AI, though, is generally considered as resting on shakier ground.
Penrose claims that there is an intimate, perhaps unknowable relation between quantum effects and our thinking, and ultimately derives his anti-AI stance from his proposition that some, if not all, of our thinking is non-algorithmic. Of course, these days we believe that there are other avenues to AI than traditional algorithmic programming; while he has been accused of setting up straw robots to knock down, this accusation is unfair. Little was then known about the power of neural networks and behavior-based robotics to simulate (and, some would say, produce) intelligent problem-solving behavior. Whether these tools will lead to strong AI is ultimately a question of belief, not proof, and The Emperor's New Mind offers powerful arguments useful to believer and nonbeliever alike. --Rob Lightner

Reading Nietzsche's works as the "political biography of his soul," Leslie Thiele presents an original and accessible essay on the great thinker's attempt to lead a heroic life as a philosopher, artist, saint, educator, and solitary. He takes as his point of departure Nietzsche's conception of the soul as a multiplicity of conflicting drives and personae, and focuses on the task Nietzsche allotted himself "to make a cosmos out of his chaotic inheritance." This struggle to "become what you are" by way of a spiritual politics is demonstrated to be Nietzsche's foremost concern, which fused his philosophy with his life.The book offers a conversation with Nietzsche rather than a consideration of the secondary literature, yet it takes to task many prevalent approaches to his work, and contests especially the way we often restrict our encounter with him to conceptual analysis. All deconstructionist attempts to portray him as solely concerned with the destruction of the subject and the dispersion of the self, rather than its unification, are called into question. Often portrayed as the champion of nihilism, Nietzsche here emerges as a thinker who saw his primary task as the overcoming of nihilism through the heroic struggle of individuation.

Oxford Philosophical Texts Series Editor: John Cottingham The Oxford Philosophical Texts series consists of authoritative teaching editions of canonical texts in the history of philosophy from the ancient world down to modern times. Each volume provides a clear, well laid out text together with a comprehensive introduction by a leading specialist, giving the student detailed critical guidance on the intellectual context of the work and the structure and philosophical importance of the main arguments. Endnotes are supplied which provide further commentary on the arguments and explain unfamiliar references and terminology, and a full bibliography and index are also included. The series aims to build up a definitive corpus of key texts in the Western philosophical tradition, which will form a reliable and enduring resource for students and teachers alike. David Hume's aim in writing An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) was to introduce his philosophy to a European culture in which many educated people read original works of philosophy. He gives an elegant and accessible presentation of strikingly original and challenging views about the limited powers of human understanding, the attractions of scepticism, the compatibility of free will and determinism, and weaknesses in the foundations of religion. Hume's philosophy was highly controversial in the eighteenth century and remains so today. The text printed in this edition is that of the Clarendon critical edition of Hume's works. A substantial introduction by the editor explains the intellectual background to the work and surveys its main themes. The volume also includes detailed explanatory notes on the text, a glossary of terms, a full list of references, and a section of supplementary readings.