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Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature
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Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature Hardcover - 2002

by Duncan F. Kennedy


From the publisher

How deeply into the structure of physical reality do the effects of our way of representing it reach? To what extent do constructivist accounts of scientific theorizing involve realist assumptions, and vice versa? This book provides a lucid and concise introduction to contemporary debates, taking as its theme the question of the relationship of representation and reality. It treats in an attractive and accessible way the historical, philosophical, and literary aspects of this question. In particular, it explores how the present relates to and configures claims to scientific knowledge from the past, taking as its main case study On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), the poem on physics written by the Roman poet Lucretius in the 50s B.C.E.
The book engages in a sustained argument about realist assumptions in scientific and other discourses through detailed analysis and discussion of some of the most important recent contributions to this debate. Engaging sympathetically but not uncritically with constructivist accounts of scientific knowledge, the book takes up a sustained critique of recent contributions to that debate, including those of Ian Hacking, Evelyn Fox Keller, Bruno Latour, and Hans-Jrg Rheinberger. What are the implications of regarding such knowledge as "discovered" or "invented"? How is the rhetoric of such claims to be identified and the pretentions of those claims assessed?In what ways can realist and constructivist approaches be reconciled? How do these considerations affect the way we read scientific texts from the past and regard them historically?
What emerges is a fresh and challenging assessment of the role of time and temporal perspective in assessing claims to knowledge in scientific thought and of the importance of textuality to the history of knowledge. A wide variety of readers, from classicists and intellectual historians to epistemologists of science, will enjoy and learn from Rethinking Reality.
Duncan Kennedy is Reader in Latin Literature and the Theory of Criticism, University of Bristol. He is also the author of The Arts of Love: Five Studies in the Discourse of Roman Love Elegy.

Details

  • Title Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature
  • Author Duncan F. Kennedy
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 160
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Michigan Press
  • Date 2002-09
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780472112883 / 0472112880
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.34 x 6.36 x 0.71 in (23.72 x 16.15 x 1.80 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
    • Cultural Region: Italy
  • Library of Congress subjects Nature in literature, Reality in literature
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002000639
  • Dewey Decimal Code 187
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Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature

Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature

by Kennedy, Duncan F.

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Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 145 pages. How deeply into the structure of physical reality do the effects of our way of representing it reach? To what extent do constructivist accounts of scientific theorizing involve realist assumptions, and vice versa? This book provides a lucid and concise introduction to contemporary debates, taking as its theme the question of the relationship of representation and reality. It treats in an attractive and accessible way the historical, philosophical, and literary aspects of this question. In particular, it explores how the present relates to and configures claims to scientific knowledge from the past, taking as its main case study On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), the poem on physics written by the Roman poet Lucretius in the 50s B.C.E. The book engages in a sustained argument about realist assumptions in scientific and other discourses through detailed analysis and… Read More
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$28.00
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Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Rethinking Reality: Lucretius and the Textualization of Nature

by Kennedy, Duncan F.

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  • Hardcover
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New
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780472112883
ISBN 10
0472112880
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Univ of Michigan Pr, 2002. Hardcover. New. 145 pages. 9.50x6.50x0.75 inches.
Item Price
$96.05
$12.77 shipping to USA