Science in the Forest, Science in the Past, Paperback

This collection brings together leading social anthropologists, historians, philosophers of science and mathematics, and researchers in artificial intelligence to discuss the ontological presuppositions used in indigenous, Eastern, and Western societies, both ancient and contemporary, about the subjects of reality they investigate. The authors analyze prevailing assumptions about societies distant in time or space and propose more faithful, sensitive analyses of their ontologies as a step toward mutual understanding and translatability across cultures and disciplines.

Science in the Forest, Science in the Past is a pioneering interdisciplinary exploration of science and mathematics that will change the way researchers, educators, policy makers, and students think about our deeply held notions of what constitutes reality and how we apprehend and investigate it.

About author(s):Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd is professor emeritus of ancient philosophy and science at the University of Cambridge, where he was master of Darwin College from 1989 to 2000. He has published over thirty books, most recently Being, Humanity and Understanding and The Ambivalences of Rationality: Ancient and Modern Cross-Cultural Explorations. Aparecida Vilaça is professor of social anthropology at the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She is the author of Strange Enemies: Indigenous Agency and Scenes of Encounters in Amazonia and Praying and Preying: Christianity in Indigenous Amazonia, among others.