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

  • Cohen, H. Floris
Date:
[2010], ©2010
  • Books
  • Online

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Description

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.

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Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2010], ©2010.

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1 online resource.

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Contents

Prologue: solving the problem of the scientific revolution -- Greek foundations, Chinese contrasts -- Greek nature-knowledge transplanted: the Islamic world -- Greek nature-knowledge transplanted in part: Medieval Europe -- Greek nature-knowledge transplanted, and more: Renaissance Europe -- The first transformation: realist-mathematical science -- The second transformation: a kinetic-corpuscularian philosophy of nature -- The third transformation: to find facts through experiment -- Concurrence explained -- Prospects around 1640 -- Achievements and limitations of realist-mathematical science -- Achievements and limitations of kinetic corpuscularianism -- Legitimacy in the balance -- Achievements and limitations of fact-finding experimentalism -- Nature-knowledge decompartmentalized -- The fourth transformation: corpuscular motion geometrized -- The fifth transformation: the Baconian brew -- Legitimacy of a new kind -- Nature-knowledge by 1684: the achievement so far -- The sixth transformation: the Newtonian synthesis -- Epilogue: a dual legacy.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (p. [743]-765) and indexes.

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  • 9048512735
  • 9789048512737