A Short History of Scientific Thought

ISBN-13: 9780230019423 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 328 str.

John Henry

Opis

A highly readable historical survey of the major developments in scientific thought and the impact of science on Western culture, this book takes the reader from ancient times through to the twentieth century. Organized chronologically, the book explores the history of studies of the natural world, and man's role within that world, in a single volume.

Recenzje

“A Short History of Scientific Thought offers a traditional survey of the development of Western natural philosophy and mathematical sciences and traces their transformation into basic subject fields of modern scientific inquiry and today’s chief scientific theories, for example quantum mechanics and evolution. … Henry’s book is a suitable replacement for twentieth-century surveys used in the undergraduate classroom, a use that is enhanced by his emphasis on scientific content and minimal engagement with historiographical debate.” (Jole Shackelford, Science and Education, Vol. 48, 2016)

Spis treści

Introduction Setting the Scene Plato and Aristotle From the Roman Empire to the Empire of Islam The Western Middle Ages The Renaissance Nicholas Copernicus anda New World New Methods of Science Bringing Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Together: Johannes Kepler Mathematics and Mechanics: Galileo Galilei Practice and Theory in Renaissance Medicine: William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood The Spirit of System: René Descartes and the Mechanical Philosophy The Royal Society and Experimental Philosophy Experiment, Mathematics, and Magic: Isaac Newton Newton's Legacy: Forces and Fluids (electricity and heat) The Chemical Revolution: From Newton to John Dalton, via Priestley and Lavoisier Natural Theology and Natural Order: Newtonian Optimism and the History of Science The Making of Geology: From James Hutton to Charles Lyell via Catastrophism The History of Plants and Animals: Successive Emergence or Evolution? Religion and Progress in Victorian Britain: Robert Chambers versus Hugh Miller Bringing it All Together?: Charles Darwin's Evolution Darwinian Aftermaths: Religion; Social Science; Biology Beyond Newton: Energy and Thermodynamics Newton Deposed: Einstein and Relativity Theory Mathematics Instead of a World Picture: From Atomism to Quantum Theory Afterword Index.

O autorze

JOHN HENRY Professor of the History of Science at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He has published widely in the history of science from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, including The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science, now in its third edition

Blurb

From Plato to Einstein, via Copernicus and Darwin, this fascinating text shows how science came to be such a dominating and important aspect of modern culture. Presented as a lively and highly readable narrative, it provides a rich historical
survey of the major developments in scientific thought, from the Ancient Greeks to the twentieth century. Along the way, John Henry revises many false assumptions that have been made about the history of science and offers new interpretations. Grounded firmly upon the latest historical scholarship, the book explains how new scientific theories have emerged and analyses their impact on contemporary thinking.

A Short History of Scientific Thought places the history of science within its social, cultural and historical contexts, covering key topics such as:

í the relationship between science and religion
í the history of science and magic
í experimental and mechanical philosophy
í Newton's legacy
í theories of evolution