Cover: Scientific Revolution, 1st Edition by Margaret C. Jacob

Scientific Revolution

First  Edition©2010  Margaret C. Jacob

About

Utilizing the writings of well-known scientists and philosophers such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton, as well as a variety of additional primary sources, The Scientific Revolution chronicles this event from its origins in the early sixteenth century to its widespread acceptance in Western societies in the late eighteenth century.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
List of Illustrations
 
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLUTION AND
  IMPACT OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
 Why Did the Scientific Revolution Happen?
 Aristotle, Ptolemy, and their Early Modern Defenders
 Exploration and Technological Innovation
 The Emergence of the Scientific Revolution
 The New Science
 The Mechanical Philosophy
 Newtonian Science
 Reconciling, Science, Religion, and Magic
 Spreading the Scientific Revolution
 Conclusion: The Long Road to Acceptance
 
PART TWO: THE DOCUMENTS   
 1. Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolution of the Heavenly
       Orbs, 1543
 2. Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, 1605
 3. Francis Bacon, The Great Instauration, 1620  
 4. Galileo Galilei, The Starry Messenger, 1610
 5. William Harvey, On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood
       In Animals, 1628
 6. René Descartes, Discourse on Method, 1637
 7. Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, 1660
 8. Robert Boyle, A Free-Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received
       Notion of Nature, 1686
 9. Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, Of the Formation of the Teeth in
      Several Animals; the Structure of the Human Teeth
      Explained…., 1683
 10. Isaac Newton, Letter to Philosophical Transactions of the
         Royal Society, 1672
 11. Isaac Newton, Selections from Principia, 1687
 12. Isaac Newton, Thirty-first Query to the Opticks, 1718
 13. Christiaan Huygens, The Celestial Worlds Discovered, 1698
 14. Maria Sibylla Merian, Letter of 1702
 15. Maria Sibylla Merian, Butterfly, Hawk-moth, Caterpillar
 16. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1713-14
 17. Jean Desaguliers, Physico-Mechanical Lectures, 1717 
 18. Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on
         Electricity Made in Philadelphia in America, 1751
 
Appendixes              
    A Chronology of the Scientific Revolution (1514-1752)
    Questions for Consideration
    Selected Bibliography
Index

Margaret C. Jacob

Margaret C. Jacob is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has written extensively on aspects of the Enlightenment as well as the cultural roots of the First Industrial Revolution.  Her works include The First Knowledge Economy, Strangers Nowhere in the World: The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe, and The Newtonians and the English Revolution. She has been president of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.