'Like the Oscars for academic publishing': UAB philosopher's book advancing understanding of life through science receives prestigious recognition – News

Kevin McCain, Ph.D.
Photography: Nick LehmannUnderstanding life. It's a concept that seems insurmountable, but not for lack of effort. Humanity is constantly trying to search for answers to better understand, and hopefully gain a clearer picture of, the complexities of life.

Kevin McKean, Ph.D., a philosopher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was struck by the same question about understanding life and things to uncover the answer through a scientific lens. As a result, his book Understanding How Science Explains the World was chosen as one of the best books Choice reviews outstanding academic titles for 2023

“While there are various metrics for knowing whether work directed at an academic audience is reaching the target audience, it is often difficult to know whether work directed at a general audience is successfully reaching them,” said McCain, a professor of philosophy at Harvard University School of Science. or not”. Arts and Sciences. “This award serves as proof and confirmation that my book is well-suited and well-received by my target audience, which means it has achieved its goal.”

According to McCain's editor Cambridge University PressThe Choice Review Awards are like the Oscars of academic publishing. This prestigious list reflects the best scholarly titles, both print and digital, reviewed by Choice during the previous year and brings with it the exceptional recognition of the academic library community. The list is quite eclectic, containing approximately 10 percent of the approximately 5,000 works reviewed annually in the selection. Criteria include excellence in presentation and scholarship, relevance, relevance to other literature in the field, originality, and uniqueness, among others.

McCain's book is part of Cambridge University Press's Understanding Life series. While most titles in the series focus on issues within the life sciences: understanding evolution, understanding genes, understanding cancer and so on, McCain's title has a broader focus. His book explores the nature and features of scientific explanation, how these explanations are evaluated, and how they lead to scientific knowledge and understanding.

His main goals for the book are to help foster appreciation of the role that explanatory reasoning plays in science and to clarify common misconceptions about science and its explanations.

“Two fundamental misunderstandings that I would like readers to recognize as wrong are the idea that to be good science, or even true science, a theory must explain everything, and the idea that we cannot have scientific knowledge because it is always possible to give up “For a well-confirmed theory in the future.”

The journey of writing this book and trying to answer the difficult question of understanding life has not been without challenges. McCain says his main challenge is keeping the book accessible to non-academics.

He said: “Although the book is a philosophical work of science, it does not assume any prior knowledge of philosophy nor scientific experience.” “At times, it was difficult to know how best to express deep philosophical issues in a way that readers could easily understand without leaving out essential details.”

Due to the success of McCain's book and the depth of its meanings, it is scheduled to be translated into Turkish and published by a publishing house. Cook University Press.