1st Edition
Myth, Chaos, and Certainty Notes on Cosmos, Life, and Knowledge
This book offers a study of the three evolutions in a circle (cosmos, life, and knowledge) with the aim of discussing human social behavior, a metaphor of the general behavior of nature (from which man derives) within the fluctuating equilibrium between the opposite tendencies to cohesion and shredding; a circularity revealing an indefinite and probably never conclusive run-up of human beings to the knowledge of nature; an analysis that demonstrates any theoretical/practical impossibility to formulate absolute certainties, since it depicts a situation in which man finds himself hovering between a rational way of living and the contradictory modus operandi of mythos. All that, within a society where the powerful communication and transportation technologies give rise to conflicts and fragmentations, where anyone’s will to self-distinguishing is enhanced by highlighting any small difference and obscuring any large similarity. The main difference between this book and existing ones stems from its interdisciplinary nature, particularly because it establishes a close connection between three, apparently so different disciplines—cosmology, life sciences, and sociology—compared with respect to their increasing complexity laws, giving rise to always more chaotic configurations.
Biography
Rosolino Buccheri, retired research director in astrophysics and cosmic physics, National Research Council (CNR), Italy, was the leader of the Palermo CNR group for the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration international space missions in high-energy astrophysics. Among the most important results of the group were (i) the discovery of pulsed gamma radiation from the Crab Nebula and Vela pulsars and (ii) the discovery of the first superfast binary pulsar, PSR1953+29, from the Arecibo Radio Observatory (Puerto Rico). Dr. Buccheri was director of the Instituto di Fisica Cosmica e Applicazioni dell’Informatica (four times between 1985 and 1990) and the Area della Ricerca (1989–2000), both CNR. He was also visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany; Cornell University, USA; the University of Potchefstroom, South Africa; Nottingham University, Great Britain; and the Astronomical Institute of Tatranska Lomniça, Slovakia. In addition, he was a scientific referee of the international journals Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysical Journal, and Experimental Astrophysics and has co-directed international conferences on astrophysics and the nature of time. He has published 6 books in Italian, authored more than 200 scientific publications in international journals, and co-authored the book L’idea del Tempo with Margherita Hack and Pippo Battaglia.
"Myth, Chaos, and Certainty is a book that reveals, from an unheard and very original, personal perspective, the dialogical potential of culture, starting from a deep epistemological examination of the man–nature relationship along human history. The result is a highly balanced discussion sketch, as well as an exemplary lesson of arguing method and scientific writing."
Prof. Vincenzo Maria Corseri, Università MEIER, Milano, Italy
"Myth, Chaos, and Certainty is an interesting panoramic view of the three evolutions—cosmos, life, and knowledge—in which every scientist, every intellectual, and whoever of the general cultivated public may be interested for the unusual but effective connections between these so different disciplines discussed here, able to open to all of us a wider view of the comprehension of our world."
Prof. Peter Andráš, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
