Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics.

New York, NY John Wiley & Sons, 1971. Paperback First Ed thus; First Printing indicated. First Ed thus; First Printing indicated. Very Good in Wraps: shows indications of very careful use, but does show the former owner's name at the front endpaper and some notations at the rear flyleaf. Else, only light wear to extremities; mild rubbing and faint soiling to the wrapper covers; small scar near the upper corner of the front panel, where a sticker has been removed; the binding is square and secure; text clean. Remains clean, sturdy, presentable. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 171pp. Academic Press Paperback. This book really is a great introduction to the scientific revolution of the 17th century. It presents the general reader with an accurate, short narrative and analysis of the scientific revolution of the 17th century. Unlike other books on this subject it does not require the reader to be familiar with a lot of technical background knowledge.Two major themes dominated the period covered in the book; the Platonic-Pythagorean tradition, which looked on nature in geometric terms, and the mechanical philosophy, which conceived of nature as a huge machine and sought to explain the hidden mechanisms behind phenomena. These themes run through the various chapters of the book. Starting out in the first chapter with the Copernican revolution in astronomy (the heliocentric theory) it shows how two men, Kepler and Galileo, reformed the theory and opened up new questions for the coming century. The following chapters cover the various sciences such as mechanics, chemistry and biology. After an interluding chapter covering the organization of the scientific enterprise (showing that universities were not always the principal centers of scientific research) it ends with two chapters in which the two themes mentioned above are drawn together and ultimately lead to the discovery of Newton's laws, solving major problems opened up at the beginning of the century. If you're at all 'science minded' this book is a must.