The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of Scientific IdeasFrom Galileo's analysis of motion to the theories of evolution and relativity, Charles Gillispie takes us on a masterly tour of the world of scientific ideas. The history of modern science is portrayed here as the development of objectivity through the study of nature. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 62
... reason in knowledge , that if a problem can be solved , it should be solved , that if something can be done , it should be done . It has come to be my opinion that those behavior pat- terns , rather than the philosophical influence of ...
... reason that scholarship has tended to smooth the transition between medieval and early modern science . David C. Lindberg has edited a collaborative overview.3 The inven- tiveness of European technology is now traced back beyond the ...
... reason for his condem- nation by the Church is the central problem of a fascinating study by Pietro Redondi vividly recreating the milieu , scien- tific , political , and ecclesiastical , wherein Galileo reasoned , quarreled , and wrote ...
... reason for the trend . The theme of winning power over nature occupies authors of books as various as Paolo Rossi's admirable study of the origins of Francis Ba- con's philosophy , Keith Thomas's book on the decline of magic in ...
... reason for preferring one representation of its processes or struc- ture over another , the Newtonian over the Aristotelian , the Darwinian over the creationist , the quantum - mechanical over the classical or relativistic , the germ ...
Contents
FULL CIRCLE | 1 |
ART LIFE AND EXPERIMENT | 52 |
THE NEW PHILOSOPHY | 81 |
NEWTON WITH HIS PRISM AND SILENT FACE | 115 |
SCIENCE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT | 149 |
THE RATIONALIZATION OF MATTER | 200 |
THE HISTORY OF NATURE | 258 |
BIOLOGY COMES OF AGE | 301 |
EARLY ENERGETICS | 350 |
FIELD PHYSICS | 404 |
EPILOGUE | 491 |
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY | 519 |
INDEX | 543 |