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A History of Natural Philosophy

From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century

Edward Grant author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:22nd Jan '07

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A History of Natural Philosophy cover

This book describes how natural philosophy and exact mathematical sciences joined together to make the Scientific Revolution possible.

Natural philosophy encompassed all natural phenomena of the physical world. This book describes how, in the seventeenth century, natural philosophy and the exact mathematical sciences were joined together to make the Scientific Revolution possible and lay the foundations for the emergence of numerous modern sciences in the nineteenth century.Natural philosophy encompassed all natural phenomena of the physical world. It sought to discover the physical causes of all natural effects and was little concerned with mathematics. By contrast, the exact mathematical sciences were narrowly confined to various computations that did not involve physical causes, functioning totally independently of natural philosophy. Although this began slowly to change in the late Middle Ages, a much more thoroughgoing union of natural philosophy and mathematics occurred in the seventeenth century and thereby made the Scientific Revolution possible. The title of Isaac Newton's great work, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, perfectly reflects the new relationship. Natural philosophy became the 'Great Mother of the Sciences', which by the nineteenth century had nourished the manifold chemical, physical, and biological sciences to maturity, thus enabling them to leave the 'Great Mother' and emerge as the multiplicity of independent sciences we know today.

'Edward Grant is one of the world's greatest authorities on medieval science. In the book under review he brings together his lifelong research on medieval science to reflect on the relation between natural philosophy and science.' Medical History

ISBN: 9780521689571

Dimensions: 226mm x 150mm x 25mm

Weight: 500g

376 pages