允晨文化******
與台灣大學科學教育發展中心在思亮館合辦林天送教授的科普著作《靈機一動》的新書發表會，林教授以深入淺出的說明，娓娓道出這本書的寫作重心，讓即使是中年的我也感受那種發現的喜悅和感動，林教授提到發明的三個趨力︰需要/NEED，數據/DATA，理論/THEORY，是老生常談，卻也是不易的真理，值得一再咀嚼；說的是科學發明，但文學創作亦然。曹雪芹如果不是曾親歷繁華，又怎創作得出《紅樓夢》？這個夢的現實基礎就在紅塵。科學家靈機一動的發生，常是在長久思索/追尋之後一個意外，或福至心靈的結果。就像哥倫布要到印度，卻發現新大陸一樣，如果他一直沒有啟航，或依照原來的路線，美洲或世界今日的面貌，也許就此不同。
發表會的對談中，牟中原教授也特別和聽眾分享一個英文單字，Serendipity，意外發現珍奇事物的本領。這個後起的新字常被科學界用來描述這種靈機一動，妙不可言的發現。他還提到義大利記號學大師艾可曾以Serendipities 為題，寫了一本語言和文學研究的專書。真是一場豐富和出乎意料的發表會，除了意外地認識一個英文單字和多知道一本書，也發現科學和人文之間的會通之處。
Learn from yesterday,live for today,hope for tomorrow.---這正是我們何以閱讀。
Merton 是科學史大家，他的相關論文在北京商務等都已有漢譯。這是他生前最後一棒2006.
  | The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: |
From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the wordserendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences. The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy. The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist Robert Merton and Elinor Barber, the book--though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited--was intentionally never published. This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding--many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work. Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance--anything other than serendipity. "And so serendipity began its life--a saga of misunderstandings, neglect, resurrection, distortion, celebration and controversy, all of which is chronicled with heroic enterprise and humble wit in The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity.... The history remains intact, and the intellectual trajectory outlines by Merton has, if anything, continued with even greater force."--Edward Rothstein, New York Times "An intellectual text, both a pleasure to read and a genuine contribution to scholarship."--Andrew Scull, Times Literary Supplement "A fascinating text that captivates the reader from the start. . . . In the course of following the evolution of the word serendipity, Merton and Barber provide many interesting insights into how new knowledge is produced, not only in the sciences but also in the humanities."--Cristina Gonzalez, Science "A humane, learned and very wise book. It was finished in 1958 and lay in Merton's files until just a few years ago. . . . It is a pity that we had to wait so long for it, since The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity is the great man's greatest achievement."--Steve Shapin, American Scientist "The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity is a vivid study in how words reflect their times and offers an extra delight: Merton's new afterword tracing the journey of the word since he first wrote about it. . . . Merton was a sociologist in the same way Shakespeare could be called a theater person."--Jay Tolson, U.S. News and World Report Preface by Robert K. Merton ix Publisher's Note xi Introduction by James L. Shulman xiii Chapter 1: The Origins of Serendipity 1 Chapter 2: Early Diffusion of Serendipity 22 Chapter 3: Accidental Discovery in Science: Victorian Opinion 41 Chapter 4: Stock Responses to Serendipity 61 Chapter 5: The Qualities of Serendipity 88 Chapter 6: Dictionaries and "Serendipity" 104 Chapter 7: The Social History of Serendipity 123 Chapter 8: Moral Implications of Serendipity 149 Chapter 9: The Diverse Significance of Serendipity in Science 158 Chapter 10 Serendipity as Ideology and Politics of Science 199 A Note on Serendipity as a Political Metaphor 219 A Note on Serendipity in the Humanities 223 Afterword: Autobiographical Reflections on The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity by Robert K. Merton 230 Select References 299 Name Index 303 General Index 309 Another Princeton book authored or coauthored by James L. Shulman: Subject Areas:
 Serendipities: Language and Lunacy.Serendipities is a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, a brilliant⋯⋯ 更多 |
Book Description
Serendipities is a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, a brilliant exposition of how unanticipated truths often spring from false ideas. From Leibniz's belief that the I Ching illustrated the principles of calculus to Marco Polo's mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Umberto Eco offers a dazzling tour of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange to make sense of the world. Uncovering layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, Eco offers with wit and clarity such instances as Columbus's voyage to the New World, the fictions that grew around the Rosicrucians and Knights Templar, and the linguistic endeavors to recreate the language of Babel, to show how serendipities can evolve out of mistakes. With erudition, anecdotes, and scholarly rigor, this new collection of essays is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas.