192:, have always reflected the metaphysical and psychological prejudices of their authors. Furthermore, it would be wrong to think of the evolution of scientific progress as if it moved in a purely rational way on an ascending vertical line. In reality, he states, the trend has been much more irregular and uncertain, to the point that the history of cosmological conceptions has been, "without exaggeration… a history of collective obsessions and controlled schizophrenias". From here we understand the title: the great scientists moved like "sleepwalkers" rather than according to the current model of the "electronic brain".
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A central theme of the book is the changing relationship between faith and reason. Koestler explores how these seemingly contradictory threads existed harmoniously in many of the greatest intellectuals of the West. He illustrates that while the two are estranged today, in the past the most
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in order to create new ones. People, scientists included, cling to cherished old beliefs with such love and attachment that they refuse to see what is wrong in their ideas and the truth in the new ideas that will replace them. (This point was developed a few years afterwards by
139:. He suggests that discoveries in science arise through a process akin to sleepwalking. Not that they arise by chance, but rather that scientists are neither fully aware of what guides their research, nor are they fully aware of the implications of what they discover.
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In the epilogue, Koestler argues that the "divorce" between science and religion has certainly benefited scientific and technological development, allowing humanity to enjoy prosperity never seen before. However, this has also produced a new "dullness", a kind of new
223:"The conclusion he puts forward at the end of the book is that modern science is trying too hard to be rational. Scientists have been at their best when they allowed themselves to behave as "sleepwalkers" instead of trying too earnestly to ratiocinate."
212:, in which the role of the observer, and therefore of the human spirit, is decisive in establishing what reality is. This is why Koestler openly contests the contemporary rejection of possible "non-causal interactions" and phenomena such as
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284:, his account of cosmology from the Greeks to Einstein, is still a wonderfully exciting and informative book. It was his misfortune as a writer that his best work was done in the inevitably ephemeral medium of journalism.
200:" thinking, which has dried up the human soul. Growing materialism has not only deprived man of a meaning in life, but has come into contradiction with the very developments of the most advanced physics. "
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that "The metaphor of the 'sleepwalker' was inspired by the title of the wonderful book 'the sleepwalkers' by
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According to
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The
Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe
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The Book Nobody Read. Chasing the
Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
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The
Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe
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The
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According to
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First published in the United States by
Macmillan in 1959
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Living with
Koestler: Mamaine Koestler's Letters 1945–51
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Another recurrent theme of this book is the breaking of
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421:. The Macmillan Company 1959. p. 15.
127:. It traces the history of Western
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170:" came to the fore.)
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210:theory of relativity
862:The God that Failed
855:Dialogue with Death
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788:The Act of Creation
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