Just A Theory

This is an excellent and timely book for science teachers and for science education students....[Ben-Ari] very successfully provides a contemporary introduction to each of these fields [the philosophy, history, and sociology of science], providing numerous examples that science students can identify with to illustrate the points being made...clearly written, well referenced, and illustrated with historical and contemporary episodes....This illustrative material will be welcomed by teachers.-Newsletter of the IHPST (International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group)Just a Theory comes just in time. Although we live in an age of science, public misunderstanding of the role and nature of the scientific enterprise has never been greater. In this accessible, engaging and surprisingly complete book, Ben-Ari addresses the big issues; what is science, what do sciences do, how scientific knowledge is produced, why religion and science are not at odds, and why it makes no sense to say that something is just a theory.-William F. McComas, Ph.D., Director, Program to Advance Science Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaSome people claim that evolution is just a theory. Do you know what a scientific theory really is? Just a theory is an overview of the modern concepts of science. A clear understanding of the nature of science will enable you to distinguish science from pseudoscience (which illegitimately wraps itself in the mantle of science), and real social issues in science from the caricatures portrayed in postmodernist critiques.Prof. Ben-Ari's style is light (even humorous) and easy to read, bringing the latest concepts of science to the general reader. Of particular interest is his analysis of the terminology of science (fact, law, proof, theory) in relation to the colloquial meaning of these terms.Between chapters are biographical vignettes of scientists - both familiar and unfamiliar - showing their common commitment to the enterprise of science, together with a diversity of backgrounds and personalities.This accessible, informative, and comprehensive work will give lay readers a good grasp of real science.Moti Ben-Ari is associate professor in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute, Israel, and the author of six textbooks on computer science. He has received the 2004 ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education.