The Nature Of Natural History
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
What does it truly mean to study the natural world, and where does science end and philosophy begin? In The Nature of Natural History, distinguished zoologist and naturalist Marston Bates presents a sweeping, intellectually rich meditation on the discipline of natural history itself — its origins, its methods, its practitioners, and its place within the broader landscape of human knowledge. Bates argues that natural history is not merely a catalogue of organisms and their habits, but a living, breathing enterprise rooted in humanity's oldest and most instinctive curiosity: the desire to understand the living world around us. Written with the clarity and warmth of a scientist who is equally at home in the jungle and the library, The Nature of Natural History illustrates how observation, classification, and ecological thinking intersect to form the bedrock of modern biology. Bates draws on a vast reservoir of anecdote, history, and scientific reasoning to champion the naturalist's craft at a time when laboratory science was increasingly eclipsing field study. For anyone who has ever paused to wonder at the complexity of life on Earth, this quietly radical book poses a question that remains as urgent today as it was in 1951: can we afford to stop paying attention to nature on its own terms?
Author: Marston Bates
Format: Hardback
Published: 1951, Chapman & Hall
Genre: Natural history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
What does it truly mean to study the natural world, and where does science end and philosophy begin? In The Nature of Natural History, distinguished zoologist and naturalist Marston Bates presents a sweeping, intellectually rich meditation on the discipline of natural history itself — its origins, its methods, its practitioners, and its place within the broader landscape of human knowledge. Bates argues that natural history is not merely a catalogue of organisms and their habits, but a living, breathing enterprise rooted in humanity's oldest and most instinctive curiosity: the desire to understand the living world around us. Written with the clarity and warmth of a scientist who is equally at home in the jungle and the library, The Nature of Natural History illustrates how observation, classification, and ecological thinking intersect to form the bedrock of modern biology. Bates draws on a vast reservoir of anecdote, history, and scientific reasoning to champion the naturalist's craft at a time when laboratory science was increasingly eclipsing field study. For anyone who has ever paused to wonder at the complexity of life on Earth, this quietly radical book poses a question that remains as urgent today as it was in 1951: can we afford to stop paying attention to nature on its own terms?