Books by Gerald Holton

Examines the nature of science, asking questions such as "what is good science" and "what is the proper goal of scientific activity". This text explores the historical roots to such queries, and analyzes the answers emerging from the scientific and political controversies of the 20th century.

This book shows why at any given time there exists no single scientific "paradigm," but rather a spectrum of competing perspectives. Considering conflicts between Heisenberg and Einstein, Bohr and Einstein, and P. W. Bridgman and B. F. Skinner, Holton demonstrates a masterly understanding of modern science and how it influences our world.

How did Einstein's ideas shape the imaginations of 20th-century artists and writers? Are there national differences between styles of scientific research? By what mechanisms is progress in science achieved despite diversity of individual, often conflicting, efforts? These are a few of the questions posed by Holton, a leading historians of science.

Through his rich exploration of Einstein's thought, Gerald Holton shows how the best science depends on great intuitive leaps of imagination, and how science is indeed the creative expression of the tradition of Western civilization.

Using firsthand accounts gleaned from notebooks, interviews, and correspondence of such twentieth-century scientists as Einstein, Fermi, and Millikan, Holton shows how the idea of the scientific imagination has practical implications for the history and philosophy of science and the larger understanding of the place of science in our culture.