Download or read book Natural Philosophy Hypotheses and Impiety written by Edgar William Morse and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 798 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ruggiero Boscovich s Theory of Natural Philosophy written by Luca Guzzardi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on published works, correspondence and manuscripts, this book offers the most comprehensive reconstruction of Boscovich’s theory within its historical context. It explains the genesis and theoretical as well as epistemological underpinnings in light of the Jesuit tradition to which Boscovich belonged, and contrasts his ideas with those of Newton, Leibniz, and their legacy. Finally, it debates crucial issues in early-modern physical science such as the concept of force, the particle-like structure of matter, the idea of material points and the notion of continuity, and shares novel insights on Boscovich’s alleged influence on later developments in physics. With its attempt to reduce all natural forces to one single law, Boscovich’s Theory of Natural Philosophy, published in 1758, left a lasting impression on scientists and philosophers of every age regarding the fundamental unity of physical phenomena. The theory argues that every pair of material points is subject to one mutual force — and always the same force — which is their propensity to be mutually attracted or repelled, depending on their distance from one another. Furthermore, the action of this unique force is visualized through a famous diagram that fascinated generations of scientists. But his understanding of key terms of the theory — such as the notion of force involved and the very idea of a material point — is only ostensibly similar to our current conceptual framework. Indeed, it needs to be clarified within the plurality of contexts in which it has emerged rather than being considered in view of later developments. The book is recommended for scholars and students interested in the ideas of the early modern period, especially historians and philosophers of science, mathematicians and physicists with an interest in the history of the discipline, and experts on Jesuit science and philosophy.
Download or read book Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth Century Science written by David Cahan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1994-01-12 with total page 701 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) was a polymath of dazzling intellectual range and energy. Renowned for his co-discovery of the second law of thermodynamics and his invention of the ophthalmoscope, Helmholtz also made many other contributions to physiology, physical theory, philosophy of science and mathematics, and aesthetic thought. During the late nineteenth century, Helmholtz was revered as a scientist-sage—much like Albert Einstein in this century. David Cahan has assembled an outstanding group of European and North American historians of science and philosophy for this intellectual biography of Helmholtz, the first ever to critically assess both his published and unpublished writings. It represents a significant contribution not only to Helmholtz scholarship but also to the history of nineteenth-century science and philosophy in general.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Nature written by Brian Ellis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "The Philosophy of Nature," Brian Ellis provides a clear and forthright general summation of, and introduction to, the new essentialist position. Although the theory that the laws of nature are immanent in things, rather than imposed on them from without, is an ancient one, much recent work has been done to revive interest in essentialism and "The Philosophy of Nature" is a distinctive contribution to this lively current debate. Brian Ellis exposes the philosophical and scientific credentials of the prevailing Humean metaphysic as less than compelling and makes the case for new essentialism as an alternative metaphysical perspective in lucid and unambiguous terms. This book develops this alternative metaphysic and considers the consequences for philosophy, and for some other areas of investigation, of working with such a metaphysic. Ellis argues that these consequences are profound and that a new essentialism provides a comprehensive new philosophy of nature for a modern scientific understanding of the world.
Download or read book Instrumental Traditions and Theories of Light written by Xiang Chen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the optical revolution in the context of early 19th century Britain. Far from merely involving the replacement of one optical theory by another, the revolution also involved substantial changes in instruments and the practices that surrounded them. People's judgements about classification, explanation and evaluation were affected by the way they used such optical instruments as spectroscopes, telescopes, polarisers, photometers, gratings, prisms and apertures. There were two instrumental traditions in this historical period, each of which nurtured a body of practice that exemplified how optical instruments should be operated, and especially how the eye should be used. These traditions functioned just like paradigms, shaping perspectives and even world views. Readership: Scholars and graduate students in the history of science, history of instrument, philosophy of science and science studies. Can also be used as a textbook in graduate courses on 19th century physics.
Download or read book Nervous Conditions written by Elizabeth Green Musselman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nervous Conditions explores the role of the body in the development of modern science, challenging the myth that modern science is built on a bedrock of objectivity and confident empiricism. In this fascinating look into the private world of British natural philosophers—including John Dalton, Lord Kelvin, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and many others—Elizabeth Green Musselman shows how the internal workings of their bodies played an important part in the sciences' movement to the center of modern life, and how a scientific community and a nation struggled their way into existence. Many of these natural philosophers endured serious nervous difficulties, particularly vision problems. They turned these weaknesses into strengths, however, by claiming that their well-disciplined mental skills enabled them to transcend their bodily frailties. Their adeptness at transcendence, they asserted, explained why men of science belonged at the heart of modern life, and qualified them to address such problems as unifying the British provinces into one nation, managing the industrial workplace, and accommodating religious plurality.
Download or read book The Idea of Nature written by Robin George Collingwood and published by London : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1960 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collingwood's theory of philosophical method applied to the problem of the philosophy of nature.
Download or read book The Gaia Hypothesis written by Elissa Rubenstein and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2019-06-06 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book, The Gaia Hypothesis, is a fascinating eye-opener into the natural philosophy and law guiding our planet yesterday, today, and always.
Download or read book The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750 1900 written by Michael J. Crowe and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-04 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed, scholarly study examines the ideas that developed between 1750 and 1900 regarding the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, including those of Kant, Herschel, Voltaire, Lowell, many others. 16 illustrations.
Download or read book Is Nature Ever Evil written by Willem B. Drees and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Nature Ever Evil?, considers the different ways in which reality is understood between the disciplines of ethics, religion and science focusing on the ethical evaluation of nature itself.
Download or read book History of the Principle of Interference of Light written by N. Kipnis and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The controversy between the wave theory and the emission theory of light early in the nineteenth century has been a subject of numerous studies. Yet many is sues remain unclear, in particular, the reasons for rejecting Young's theory of light. It appears that further progress in the field requires a better grasp of the overall situation in optics and related subjects at the time and a more thorough study of every factor suggested to be of importance for the dispute. This book is intended to be a step in this direction. It examines the impact of the concept of interference of light on the development of the early nineteenth century optics in general, and the theory of light, in particular. This is not a his tory of the wave theory of light, nor is it a history of the debate on the nature of light in general: it covers only that part of the controversy which involved the concept of interference. Although the book deals with a number of scientists, scientific institutions, and journals, its main character is a scientific concept, the principle of interference. While discussing the reasons for accepting or rejecting this concept I have primarily focused on scientific factors, although in some cases the human factor is examined as well. The book is a revised Ph. D. dissertation (University of Minnesota, 1984) writ ten under Alan E. Shapiro.
Download or read book Harmless Naturalism written by Robert F. Almeder and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific naturalism, or scientism, is the theory that science has all the answers. This book argues that not all philosophical explanations can be reduced to scientific ones. Refuting support for scientism, it suggests that reliabilist and causal theories of epistemic justification are unsound.
Download or read book A Non Philosophical Theory of Nature written by A. Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilizing François Laruelle's "non-philosophical" method, Smith constructs a unified theory of philosophical theology and ecology by challenging environmental philosophy and theology, claiming that and engagement with scientific ecology can radically change the standard metaphysics of nature, as well as ethical problems related to "the natural".
Download or read book Optics After Newton written by G. N. Cantor and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Instruments and the Imagination written by Thomas L. Hankins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman investigate an array of instruments from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century that seem at first to be marginal to science--magnetic clocks that were said to operate by the movements of sunflower seeds, magic lanterns, ocular harpsichords (machines that played different colored lights in harmonious mixtures), Aeolian harps (a form of wind chime), and other instruments of "natural magic" designed to produce wondrous effects. By looking at these and the first recording instruments, the stereoscope, and speaking machines, the authors show that "scientific instruments" first made their appearance as devices used to evoke wonder in the beholder, as in works of magic and the theater. The authors also demonstrate that these instruments, even though they were often "tricks," were seen by their inventors as more than trickery. In the view of Athanasius Kircher, for instance, the sunflower clock was not merely a hoax, but an effort to demonstrate, however fraudulently, his truly held belief that the ability of a flower to follow the sun was due to the same cosmic magnetic influence as that which moved the planets and caused the rotation of the earth. The marvels revealed in this work raise and answer questions about the connections between natural science and natural magic, the meaning of demonstration, the role of language and the senses in science, and the connections among art, music, literature, and natural science. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book An Essay on the First Principles of Natural Philosophy etc written by William Jones and published by . This book was released on 1763 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Philosophy of Nature written by Andreas Gerardus Maria van Melsen and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
