A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century

Front Cover
Courier Corporation, Oct 29, 2013 - Science - 432 pages

Driven by an unquenchable thirst, the human spirit seeks an explanation of the world. In this fascinating study, a noted historian of science traces the course of the ceaseless yearning for answers across two and a half millennia and chronicles, in simple form, the development of the idea of a rational and interconnected material world.
This account begins with the earliest recordings of true science among the Ionian Greeks and proceeds to detail the development of unitary systems of thought among Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and others. Examinations of the science of imperial Rome ― including Roman mathematics, astronomy, physics, and calendarial science ― give rise to the science of the Middle Ages and the influence of Scholasticism, the rise of humanism, and the reawakened scientific spirit of the early Renaissance. These developments in turn led to the downfall of Aristotelian science in the seventeenth century, the Galilean revolution, Newtonian mathematical physics, and finally, the enthronement of determinism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Profusely illustrated with maps and diagrams, this comprehensive yet concise volume offers an absorbing, readable history of science up to the dawn of the modern era.

 

Selected pages

Contents

FIGS 53
FIG 55
FIG 56
FIG 57
FIG 58
FIG 59
FIG 60
FIG 61

FIG 38
FIG 40
FIG 41
FIG 42
FIG 43
FIG 44
FIG 46
FIG 47
FIG 48
FIG 49
FIG 50
FIG 51
FIG 52
FIG 62
FIG 63
FIG 64
FIG 65
FIG 66
FIG 67
FIG 68
FIG 69
FIG 71
FIG 72
FIG 73
FIG 74
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information