Extraterrestrials: A Philosophical Perspective

(Paperback)

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The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has attracted both praise and sharp criticism from the mainstream scientific community over the years. Extraterrestrials: A Philosophical Perspective explores the important philosophical issues that are at play in this discussion. Andr Kukla closely examines several of the prominent ideas surrounding the possibility of extraterrestrial life such as the vastness of the universe argument, the argument from mediocrity and the one world, one science argument while offering innovative theories of his own. Among other things, Kukla show uses Chomsky's account of language acquisition to explain why humans will never be able to communicate with extraterrestrials. Extraterrestrials offers a close and thorough treatment of extraterrestrial life that will intrigue a wide audience, especially those who are interested in the philosophy of science.

Reviews

In this short and highly technical monograph, retired psychology professor Andre Kukla examines the possibility of communicating with extraterrestrials. * John Rimmer's Magonia Blog *
Virtually since the birth of theorizing, theorists have been enthralled by the prospect of intelligent extraterrestrial life. And in our own day a good deal of toil and treasure is being devoted to explore the possibilities. The nature of this enterprise raises many fascinating and complex question across the whole spectrum of human knowledge about life, intelligence, and language. Kuklas book provides a penetrating and instructive conspectus of the substantial array of important issue at stake. -- Nicholas Rescher

Author Bio

Andr Kukla is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toronto.