SETI public: The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915

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The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915

A Source Book

Edited with Commentary by Michael J. Crowe

This book presents key documents from the pre-1915 history of the
extraterrestrial life debate. Introductions and commentaries accompany each
source document, some of which are published here for the first time or in a
new translation. Authors included are Aristotle, Lucretius, Aquinas,
Nicholas of Cusa, Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Fontenelle, Huygens, Newton,
Pope, Voltaire, Kant, Paine, Chalmers, Darwin, Wallace, Dostoevski, Lowell,
and Antoniadi, among others. Michael J. Crowe has compiled an extensive
bibliography not available in other sources.

These materials reveal that the extraterrestrial life debate, rather than
being a relatively modern phenomenon, has extended throughout nearly all
Western history and has involved many of its leading intellectuals. The
readings also demonstrate that belief in extraterrestrial life has had major
effects on science and society, and that metaphysical and religious views
have permeated the debate throughout much of its history.

Michael J. Crowe is the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in
Humanities in the Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History
and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has published
a number of books, including The Extraterrestrial Life Debate,
1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell.

Details are here:

http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01253

• Previous message: James Brown: "SETI public: Laser Dish Alignment"

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