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The Science of Nature in the Seventeenth Century

Patterns of Change in Early Modern Natural Philosophy

  • Book
  • © 2005

Overview

Editors:
  1. Peter R. Anstey

    1. University of Sydney, Australia

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. John A. Schuster

    1. University of New South Wales, Australia

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • One of few books to take seriously the early modern category of "natural philosophy" as the field and activity in which knowledge of nature was pursued and contested
  • Chapters cover key dimensions of the dynamics of the field of natural philosophy, hence promote use and articulation of this important concept in historiography of science
  • Chapters are by leading internationally reputed experts in their respective specialities, focused on theme of changing patterns in and dynamics of natural philosophy in the 17th century

Part of the book series: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (AUST, volume 19)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Peter R. Anstey, John A. Schuster
    Pages 1-7

  3. The Onset of the Scientific Revolution

    • H. Foloris Cohen
    Pages 9-33

  4. ‘Waterworld’: Descartes’ Vortical Celestial Mechanics

    • John A. Schuster
    Pages 35-79

  5. Circular Argument

    • Peter Dear
    Pages 81-97

  6. From Mechanics to Mechanism

    • Helen Hattab
    Pages 99-129

  7. The Autonomy of Natural Philosophy

    • Stephen Gaukroger
    Pages 131-163

  8. Physico-Theology and the Mixed Sciences

    • Peter Harrison
    Pages 165-183

  9. The Saturn Problem

    • Luciano Boschiero
    Pages 185-213

  10. Experimental Versus Speculative Natural Philosophy

    • Peter R. Anstey
    Pages 215-242

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 243-249
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Keywords

About this book

One of the hallmarks of the modern world has been the stunning rise of the natural sciences. The exponential expansion of scientific knowledge and the accompanying technology that so impact on our daily lives are truly remarkable. But what is often taken for granted is the enviable epistemic-credit rating of scientific knowledge: science is authoritative, science inspires confidence, science is right. Yet it has not always been so. In the seventeenth century the situation was markedly different: competing sources of authority, shifting disciplinary boundaries, emerging modes of experimental practice and methodological reflection were some of the constituents in a quite different mélange in which knowledge of nature was by no means p- eminent. It was the desire to probe the underlying causes of the shift from the early modern ‘nature-knowledge’ to modern science that was one of the stimuli for the ‘Origins of Modernity: Early Modern Thought 1543–1789’ conference held in Sydney in July 2002. How and why did modern science emerge from its early modern roots to the dominant position which it enjoys in today’s post-modern world? Under the auspices of the International Society for Intellectual History, The University of New South Wales and The University of Sydney, a group of historians and philosophers of science gathered to discuss this issue. However, it soon became clear that a prior question needed to be settled first: the question as to the precise nature of the quest for knowledge of the natural realm in the seventeenth century.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Sydney, Australia

    Peter R. Anstey

  • University of New South Wales, Australia

    John A. Schuster

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