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How modern science came into the world : four civilizations, one 17th-century breakthrough / H. Floris Cohen

Author
Cohen, H. Floris
Published
Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2010]
Copyright Date
©2010
Physical Description
xl, 784 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

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Contents
Machine generated contents note: pt. I NATURE-KNOWLEDGE IN TRADITIONAL SOCIETY -- I.Greek Foundations, Chinese Contrasts -- A tale of two cities -- Athens and Alexandria compared -- Athens and Alexandria: Rare efforts at unification -- Greek knowledge of nature: Upswing and downturn -- Chinese knowledge of nature -- Chinese and Greek nature-knowledge compared -- Theory - a latent developmental potential and conditions for its realization -- Notes on literature used -- II.Greek Nature-Knowledge Transplanted: The Islamic World -- Upswing -- Downturn -- On the threshold of a Scientific Revolution? -- Notes on literature used -- III.Greek Nature-Knowledge Transplanted in Part: Medieval Europe -- Upswing -- Downturn -- Nature-knowledge in Islamic civilization and in medieval Europe: A comparison -- Notes on literature used -- IV.Greek Nature-Knowledge Transplanted, and More: Renaissance Europe -- Athens replayed in full -- Alexandria: A replay with a difference -- Europe's coercive empiricism -- At the dawn of the Scientific Revolution -- Notes on literature used -- pt. II THREE REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATIONS -- V.The First Transformation Realist-Mathematical Science -- Johannes Kepler -- Galileo Galilei -- The knowledge structure of Alexandria-plus -- Causes of the first transformation -- Notes on literature used -- VI.The Second Transformation: A Kinetic-Corpuscularian Philosophy Of Nature -- Revival continued -- Beeckman and the transformation of ancient atomism -- The Cartesian variety of kinetic corpuscularianism -- Causes of the second transformation -- Notes on literature used -- VII.The Third Transformation: To Find Facts Through Experiment -- Bacon's vision -- Bacon's proposed practice: The natural history of sound -- Gilbert: Lodestone and amber treated the Baconian way -- Harvey: Bodily processes revised -- Van Helmont: Paracelsianism reformed -- Theory: Experimentation, theorizing, and background worldview -- Causes of the third transformation -- Notes on literature used -- VIII.Concurrence Explained -- An explanatory overview -- Causal gaps identified -- An underlying sense of values shared across the culture -- An upswing luckily not interrupted -- The achievement still at risk -- Notes on literature used -- IX.Prospects Around 1640 -- Chronology and continuities -- Dynamics of the revolution, in brief -- Notes on literature used -- pt. III DYNAMICS OF THE REVOLUTION -- X.Achievements and Limitations of Realist-Mathematical Science -- The classic Alexandrian subjects absorbed -- Scholastic concepts mathematized -- Craft techniques mathematized -- Mathematical instruments -- Analogies of motion -- From Euclidean ratios to the calculus -- Power and pull of realist-mathematical science -- Notes on literature used -- XI.Achievements and Limitations of Kinetic Corpuscularianism -- Musical sound as moving corpuscles: An explanatory sample -- Rapid adoption -- Modifications of the doctrine -- Whirlpools for a revolving Earth -- Another sort of power; another sort of pull -- Notes on literature used -- XII.Legitimacy in the Balance -- Strangeness: Three successive clashes -- Strangeness: Against common sense -- Sacrilege: Three successive clashes -- Strangeness and sacrilege: A looming crisis of legitimacy -- Notes on literature used -- XIII.Achievements and Limitations of Fact-Finding Experimentalism -- Facts collected and categorized -- Instrument-driven fact-finding -- Subject-driven fact-finding -- Craft techniques improved through experimental science -- Problems with facts and how to ascertain them -- Pooling of efforts -- Power and pull of fact-finding experimentalism -- Notes on literature used -- XIV.Nature-Knowledge Decompartmentalized -- Whence the breakdown of barriers? -- Quantities and corpuscles -- Revolutionary fusion in the making -- Notes on literature used -- XV.The Fourth Transformation: Corpuscular Motion Geometrized -- Motion, four principal ways -- Anomalous refraction revisited -- Notes on literature used -- XVI.The Fifth Transformation: The Baconian Brew -- Kinetic corpuscularianism crosses the Channel -- Spirit and active principles in kinetic corpuscularianism -- The Baconian Brew -- Notes on literature used -- XVII.Legitimacy of a New Kind -- The edges off controversy, and a shift of center Europe-wide -- Strangeness mitigated -- Sacrilege insulated -- Utility sanctioned in the Baconian Ideology -- Sustenance for nature-knowledge in monotheist surroundings - a comparative summing up -- Notes on literature used -- XVIII.Nature-Knowledge By 1684: The Achievement So Far -- Predecessors on their way out -- 17th-century props -- Advances on many fronts: the big picture -- The force knot -- Notes on literature used -- XIX.The Sixth Transformation: The Newtonian Synthesis -- The Newton knot -- Toward the Principia -- Principia -- Toward the Opticks -- Opticks -- Two fragments and one whole -- Notes on literature used -- Epilogue: A Dual Legacy -- Expanding modern science -- Science and values -- Notes on literature used.
Summary
Once upon a time 'The Scientific Revolution of the 17th century' was an innovative concept that inspired a stimulating narrative of how modern science came into the world. Half a century later, what we now know as 'the master narrative' serves rather as a strait-jacket - so often events and contexts just fail to fit in. No attempt has been made so far to replace the master narrative. H. Floris Cohen now comes up with precisely such a replacement. Key to his path-breaking analysis-cum-narrative is a vision of the Scientific Revolution as made up of six distinct yet narrowly interconnected, revolutionary transformations, each of some twenty-five to thirty years' duration. This vision enables him to explain how modern science could come about in Europe rather than in Greece, China, or the Islamic world. It also enables him to explain how half-way into the 17th century a vast crisis of legitimacy could arise and, in the end, be overcome.
Subject(s)
ISBN
9789089642394 (hardbound)
9089642390 (hardbound)
9789048512737 (e-isbn)
9048512735 (e-isbn)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [743]-765) and indexes.
Other Forms
Also available in electronic format.
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