The Search for Certainty - Porterfield, P. B.

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Sommaire:
1. The Birth of Certainty.- Civilization and Its Concepts.- Language and the Concept of Self.- Construction of the Word World.- The Anthropomorphic World of Words.- 2. Spirits and Gods.- The Creation of Spirits as Causal Agents.- Differentiation of Spirits into Polar Opposites.- Magic and Religion.- A Reverence for Words.- Greek Gods Made in Man's Image.- The Gods of Rome.- 3. Christian Concepts.- The Rise of Christianity.- Reward and Punishment.- Witchcraft and the Persecution of Witches.- Modern Religion and Magic.- 4. Self, Soul, and Psyche.- The Homunculus Within.- Science and the Soul.- The Unconscious.- From Soul to Psyche.- In Search of the Psyche.- The Anthropomorphic World of Words.- Benediction.- The Mechanical World of Form and Function.- 5. Knowledge in Numbers.- The Language of Numbers.- Harmony in Form and Function.- Natural Periodicities.- Science as Master-The Reign of Certainty.- Scientific Discovery and Technology.- Instruments of Change.- 6. Living Machines.- Early Views of Man as a Biologic Organism.- The Biologic Sciences from the Medievalists to Darwin.- The Building Blocks of Life.- What Controls the Machinery of the Body?.- The Building Blocks of Behavior.- The Mechanical World of Form and Function.- Commencement Remarks.- The Relative World of Process.- 7. The Return of Uncertainty.- The Relativity Theories.- The Quantum Theory and Quantum Mechanics.- Systems or Patterns.- Reducing the Uncertainty.- Practical Considerations.- 8. The Emergence of I.- Life as Process.- Living Systems and Information Processing.- The Nature of Mind.- Mind in Society.- The Relative World of Process.- Seminar Conclusion.- Conclusion.- 9. The Death of Certainty.- Increasing Uncertainty-An Overview.- A New Concept of Mind and Body.- Two Modes of Organizing Information.- The Self-A Wave or a Particle?.