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This book documents the process of transformation from natural philosophy, which was considered the most important of the sciences until the early modern era, into modern disciplines such as mathematics, physics, natural history, chemistry, medicine and engineering. It focuses on the 18th century, which has often been considered uninteresting for the history of science, representing the transition from the age of genius and the birth of modern science (the 17th century) to the age of prodigious development in the 19th century. Yet the 18th century, the century of Enlightenment, as will be demonstrated here, was in fact characterized by substantial ferment and novelty.
To make the text more accessible, little emphasis has been placed on the precise genesis of the various concepts and methods developed in scientific enterprises, except when doing so was necessary to make them clear. For the sake of simplicity, in several situations reference is made to the authors who are famous today, such as Newton, the Bernoullis, Euler, d’Alembert, Lagrange, Lambert, Volta et al. – not necessarily because they were the most creative and original minds, but mainly because their writings represent a synthesis of contemporary and past studies. The above names should, therefore, be considered more labels of a period than references to real historical characters.
Epistemology and Science at the Turn of the 18th Century
The Heritage of the 17th Century
Descartes’s Purely Deductive Mixed Mathematics
Pardies’ Mechanics and Theory of Light
Huygens’ Philosophical Mixed Mathematics
Newton Philosopher, Theologian, Alchemist and Even Mathematician
Space, Time and Motion
The Concept of Force
Theory of Light
Theological Writings. The Treatise on Apocalypse
A New Form of Mechanicism. The Queries
Newton’s Methodology
Quotations
The Birth of Physics as an Academic Discipline
Mechanical Philosophy
Experimental Philosophy
The Experimental Philosophy of the Accademia del Cimento
The Natural Histories of the Royal Society of London
Mechanical Philosophy, Experimental Philosophy and Mixed Mathematics
Robert Boyle, an Experimental and Mechanical Philosopher
Mathematics and Experimental Philosophy
Hypotheses and Matters of Fact
Corpuscular Philosophy and Chemistry. Physical Chemistry
Newtonian Philosophy
Influence of Newtonianism on Physicists
Influence of Newtonianism on Chemists
The Treatises of Experimental Physics
The Technology of Scientific Instruments
Quotations
Classical Mechanics
Mechanics and Natural Philosophy at the Turn of Century
The Spreading of Calculus
First Uses in Dynamics
Scalar Approaches to Mechanics
Johann Bernoulli’s Forces and Energies
Maupertuis and the Role of God in Mechanics
Euler’s Natural Philosophy and Vector Analysis
Philosophy of Nature
Mechanics and Mathematics
The Apparent Motion and the Observer
D’Alembert Science and Philosophy
The Way to Knowledge
The Parts of Science
Mechanics as a Mathematical Science
Epilogue. Lagrangian Synthesis
Quotations
Physics in General
Theories of Light
Projectile Theories
Vibration Theories
Photometry, a New Field of Optics
Lambert’s Contribution. A Philosopher and a Physicist
Electricity as a Paradigm of Experimental Sciences
Early Theories About Electricity
Some Elements in the History of Electricity in the 18th Century
A Representative of British Electricity. Stephen Gray
The Leyden Jar
A Comprehensive Theory of Electricity. Franz Ulrich Theodosius Aepinus
The Italian School
Giambattista Beccaria
Carlo Battista Barletti
Charles Augustin Coulomb
Quotations
The Emergence of the Science of Engineering
Science, Technology and Engineering
Technology Versus Applied Science
A Historical Perspective
Scientists or Technologists?
A Civil Engineer: John Smeaton
A Philosophical Engineer. James Watt
Quotations