Early Physics and Astronomy
A Historical Introduction

The book describes how the scientific account of the world arose among the Greeks and developed in the Middle Ages.

Olaf Pedersen (Author)

9780521408998, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 March 1993

424 pages, 110 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.62 kg

' ... recommend to anyone interested in the history of science...' Journal of the British Astronomical Society

The book is an introductory exposition of the development of the physical and astronomical notions of the universe. It covers the period from Greek antiquity to the Copernican revolution and the Renaissance, half of the text being devoted to medieval science within both the Aristotelian and the Archimedean traditions. The book is intended for a general audience interested in intellectual and scientific developments, but should also be useful as a guide to further studies. Thus it has an extensive bibliography classifying much of the secondary literature on the subject, and also a sixty page 'dictionary' of all the scientists and philosophers mentioned in the text. This contains references to printed editions of the sources and to a selection of books and periodicals.

Preface
1. Science before the Greeks
2. The new concept of nature
3. Plato and Greek mathematics
4. Aristotle and the knowledge of Nature
5. Practical astronomy
6. Early Greek cosmology
7. Mathematical astronomy
8. The foundation of statics
9. Dynamics in antiquity
10. The conception of light and sound
11. The structure of material substances
12. Properties of matter and chemical change
13. The transmission of Greek science
14. Experimental physics in the Middle Ages
15. The development of statics
16. The establishment of kinematics
17. Force and motion in the Middle Ages
18. Mediaeval astronomy
19. The change called Renaissance
20. The reform of astronomy
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Astronomy, space & time [PG], History of science [PDX]