Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700

by Peter Dear

Overview

This heavily revised third edition of an award-winning text offers a keen insight into the development of scientific thought in early modern Europe. Including coverage of the central scientific figures of the time, including Copernicus, Kelper, Galileo, Newton and Bacon, this book provides a comprehensive overview of how the Scientific Revolution happened and why. Highlighting Europe's colonial and trade expansion in the sixteenth and 17th centuries, Peter Dear traces the revolution in scientific thought that changed the natural world from something to be contemplated into something to be used.

This book is ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Early Modern history, European history, history of medicine, history of science and technology and the history and philosophy of science. The first edition was the winner of the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize of the History of Science Society.

New to this Edition:
- Greater treatment of alchemy and associated craft activities, to reflect ongoing new scholarship
- More focus on geographical issues, especially relating to Spain and its New World territories, as well as Eastern Europe, but also further afield in Islamic territories including the Ottoman Empire, and South and East Asia
- New material on the themes of 'science and religion', gender and class
- More extensive treatment of the relationship in this period of medicine to the various sciences and especially to new natural philosophies
- Incorporation of new scholarship throughout
- A whole chapter dedicated to Francis Bacon
- Further discussion of the gendered elements of natural philosophy
- A brand new historiographical essay

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350307568
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/10/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

PETER DEAR is Professor of History and of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, USA.
Peter Dear is Professor of History and of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, USA.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Natural Philosophy and Instrumentality
'What Was Worth Knowing' in 1500
Humanism and Ancient Wisdom: How to Learn Things in the Sixteenth Century
Paracelsus and Bacon: Philosophy as Practical Knowledge
Mathematical Practitioners and Mathematical Philosophers
Mechanism and Corpuscles: Descartes Builds a Universe
Extra-Curricular Activities: New Places for Natural Knowledge
Experiment: How to Learn Things about Nature in the Seventeenth Century
Cartesians and Newtonians
Conclusion: What Was Worth Knowing by the Eighteenth Century?
Notes and References
Documentation and Further Reading
Dramatis Personae
Glossary of Major Terms
Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This book is required reading for students and teachers of science in early modern Europe. With clear prose and a strong narrative, Dear guides the reader through the methodological and metaphysical upheavals that defined early modern science. – Michael Bycroft, University of Warwick, UK

Revolutionizing the Sciences is a highly-engaging and readable history that both explains traditional interpretations of the Scientific Revolution and offers challenging and innovative revisions to those accounts. The book is a critical starting-point for understanding the many fascinating debates around the origins of modern science going on today. – Simon Werrett, University College London, UK

Editorial Reviews

"This book is required reading for students and teachers of science in early modern Europe. With clear prose and a strong narrative, Dear guides the reader through the methodological and metaphysical upheavals that defined early modern science." --Michael Bycroft, University of Warwick, UK

"Revolutionizing the Sciences is a highly-engaging and readable history that both explains traditional interpretations of the Scientific Revolution and offers challenging and innovative revisions to those accounts. The book is a critical starting-point for understanding the many fascinating debates around the origins of modern science going on today." --Simon Werrett, University College London, UK

From the Publisher