permaculture

[Brent Neal <brentn@freeshell.org>]

On 30 Oct, 2008, at 17:10, jason brown wrote:
> 1) any references that come to mind on forestry, holism, mechanistic  
> science, general philosophy of science...


Hi Jason,

If you want to critique scientific thought, you should probably read  
up on the basic epistemologies thereof. I think what is most relevant  
to modern science is the critique of logical positivism, which mainly  
occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the most cogent  
critiques of logical positivism, the best are from Karl Popper. I  
recommend _The Logic of Scientific Discovery_ as a place to start  
there.  You should probably also read Thomas Kuhn's _The Structure of  
Scientific Revolutions_ - not a book on the philosophy of science, but  
rather, a history thereof, it nonetheless contains useful viewpoints  
on the difference between 'philosophically pure' science and 'science  
as it is actually practiced.'

Hope this helps!

Brent

--
Brent Neal, Ph.D.
http://brentn.freeshell.org
<brentn@freeshell.org>