The Return to Cosmology

"Authoritative, especially well written, and immensely readable." --P. B. Medawar, Nature "The relation between science, particularly biological and psychological science, and the proper role of man in the universe is one of the central problems of our age. . . . The question that Toulmin asks is whether they must always remain to, or whether someday they may become one. His analysis of the issue and particularly the change of his position over time will interest anyone concerned with science and its relation to human affairs." --Robert Michaels, M.D., American Journal of Psychiatry "Toulmin asks if the time is right for philosophers to seek in scientific thoughts a new base for cosmology. . . .He, like most moderns, accepts ours as a scientific age, but he reamins unwilling to dismiss the desire to make sense of the universe as a whole and to find humanity's lace in it. . . .He promises no easy answers, but his thought raises questions of vital interest to those who want to live with integrity both in the world of faith and the world of science." --Richard Jurgensen, Christian Century "For the non-specialist reader, Toulmin's approach has another clear advantage. He gives a capsulized summary of an enormous range of scientific and quasi-scientific thought, and is more successful in familiarizing the reader with the core of recent speculatie cosmology than any other author I have read. For the reader somewhat more knowledgeable in the field, Toulmin not only refreshes the memory but laces competing theories in unusual juxtaposition. I cannot image a reader not revising his convictions after putting this book down, no matter how well locked away those beliefs have been." --David Duncalfe, Queen's Quarterly "As an indicator of the change in attitude in science toward cosmology and as an argument for the new consideration of the relation between science and natural theology, the book is forceful an convincing. It is also, as are all of Toulmin's works, lucid and well written." --Eric O. Springsted, Theology Today