The Intelligibility of Nature PDF
Preview The Intelligibility of Nature
THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF NATURE science.culture A series edited by Steven Shapin Other science.culture series titles available: The Scientific Revolution,by Steven Shapin () Putting Science in Its Place,by David N.Livingstone () Human-Built World,by Thomas P.Hughes () THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF NATURE How Science Makes Sense of the World Peter Dear Peter Dear is the President Andrew O.White Professor ofthe History ofScience atCornellUniversity.He is the author ofRevolutionizing the Sciences:European Knowledge andIts Ambitions,–and Discipline and Experience:The Mathematical Way in the ScientificRevolution,the latter published by the University ofChicago Press. The University ofChicago Press,Chicago The University ofChicago Press,Ltd.,London © by The University ofChicago All rights reserved.Published Printed in the United States ofAmerica :---(cloth) Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dear,Peter Robert. The intelligibility ofnature :how science makes sense ofthe world / Peter Dear. p.cm.— (Science.culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (alk.paper) .Science—Methodology—History..Science—Philosophy—History. .Reasoning—History..Philosophy ofnature—History.I.Title.II.Series. .. —dc oThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of theAmerican National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence ofPaper forPrinted Library Materials,.-. , Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction:Science as Natural Philosophy, Science as Instrumentality .The Mechanical Universe from Galileo to Newton .A Place for Everything:The Classification of the World .The Chemical Revolution Thwarted by Atoms .Design and Disorder:The Origin of Species .Dynamical Explanation:The Aether and Victorian Machines .How to Understand Nature? Einstein,Bohr,and the Quantum Universe Conclusion:Making Sense in Science Notes Bibliographical Essay Index Illustrations .. An optical puzzle .. Descartes’s mechanical ideas .. A magnet according to Descartes .. Creation of sparks,from Hooke’s Micrographia .. Geoffroy’s table of rapports .. From Linnaeus’s Systema vegetabilium .. From Cuvier’s Tableau élémentaire de l’histoire des animaux .. Lavoisier’s experiment to analyze water .. Dalton’s atoms .. Darwin’s Galápagos finches .. Diagram of descent,from Darwin’s Origin of Species .. Man and apes,from Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature .. Magnetism according to Faraday .. Diffraction of light according to Fresnel .. An experiment to show magneto-optic rotation .. Maxwell’s electromagnetic aether .. From W.H.Russell’s The Atlantic Telegraph .. Bohr’s atomic model for hydrogen .. Interference fringes .. The first three harmonics of a musical string .. Heisenberg’s flawed thought-experiment .. Natural philosophers at work .. Quantum chemistry .. The earth according to Hutton .. An isosceles triangle .. The four-color map theorem
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