Origins of Knowledge and Imagination

In this eloquent volume Jacob Bronowski, mathematician and scientist, presents a succinct introduction to the state of modern thinking about the role of science in man's intellectual and moral life. Weaving together themes from ethnology, linguistics, philosophy, and physics, he confronts the questions of who we are, what we are, and how we relate to the universe around us.

Arguing that in order to understand human knowledge we must first grasp the means by which it is acquired, Bronowski traces the evolutionary stages of the cognitive and linguistic capacities peculiar to man. He treats science as a special kind of language and develops a series of striking and original theses about the scope and limitations of scientific knowledge. He demonstrates the ways in which any scientific theory mirrors reality and analyzes the role of imagination and metaphor in scientific discovery.

Bronowski's reflections on human understanding are those of a man who spent a lifetime thinking about man and science. The ideas set forth in this volume enrich us with fresh insight into the importance of imagination in philosophy and science as well as in the literary and visual arts.