Representing Space in the Scientific Revolution

Using an integrated philosophical and historical approach, this book explores the fundamental shift in understandings of space in the scientific revolution.

David Marshall Miller (Author)

9781107046733, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 August 2014

246 pages, 21 b/w illus.
23.4 x 16 x 1.7 cm, 0.5 kg

'In this exciting new study, Miller argues that the Scientific Revolution depended crucially on the adoption of an oriented representation of space, privileging parallel lines instead of centers. From this novel perspective he throws fresh light on the disparate contributions of Averroës, Gilbert, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Fermat, Roberval, Hooke and Newton. Highly recommended for all those with an interest in the birth of modern cosmology.' Richard T. W. Arthur, McMaster University, Ontario

The novel understanding of the physical world that characterized the Scientific Revolution depended on a fundamental shift in the way its protagonists understood and described space. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, spatial phenomena were described in relation to a presupposed central point; by its end, space had become a centerless void in which phenomena could only be described by reference to arbitrary orientations. David Marshall Miller examines both the historical and philosophical aspects of this far-reaching development, including the rejection of the idea of heavenly spheres, the advent of rectilinear inertia, and the theoretical contributions of Copernicus, Gilbert, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. His rich study shows clearly how the centered Aristotelian cosmos became the oriented Newtonian universe, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history and philosophy of science.

List of figures
Preface
Note on texts
1. Introduction: centers and orientations
2. Pluribus ergo existentibus centris: explanations, descriptions, and Copernicus
3. Non est motus omnino: Gilbert, verticity, and the Law of the Whole
4. Respicere sinus: Kepler, oriented Space, and the ellipse
5. Mille movimenti circolari: from Impetus to conserved curvilinear motion in Galileo
6. Directions sont entre elles paralleles: Descartes and his critics on oriented space and the parallelogram rule
7. Incline it to verge: Newton's spatial synthesis
8. Conclusion: methodological morals
References
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Philosophy of science [PDA], History of ideas [JFCX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH]