The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy

The first edition of The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy is out of print and has been replaced by a new 2nd edition (released in November 2022). Click here for more information about the new 2nd edition.

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25341g

Selected Readings

Edited, with Introduction, by Michael R. Matthews

1989 - 172 pp.

New edition available: Click here for information about the new 2nd Edition.

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Paper 978-0-87220-074-6
$14.00
Out of stock

The first edition of The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy is out of print and has been replaced by a new 2nd Edition (November 2022). Click here for more information about the new 2nd edition.

A supplementary text for courses in the history of modern philosophy, helping to link developments in modern science and modern philosophy.

Reviews:

"Students will find it approachable and accessible, and they will have at their fingertips a good deal of material for discussion of theories of matter and method in seventeenth-century science.”
     —Catherine Wilson, in Canadian Philosophical Review

Contents:

  • Introduction.
  • I. ARISTOTLE. Physics: bk. II, ch. 1-311. bk. IV, ch. 8. bk. VII, ch. 1, 2, 5. Posterior Analytics: bk. I, ch. 1, 2. bk. I, ch. 13.
  • II. COPERNICUS. The Commentariolus (1512). On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), Dedication.
  • III. BACON. The New Organon (1620): Aphorisms 31-46, Aphorisms 95-96.
  • IV. GALILEO. The Assayer (1623). Dialogues Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632): Second Day, pp. 1-10,Second Day, pp. 51-55 (relativity of perception), Second Day, pp. 138-40, 164-66. Discourses Concerning the Two New Sciences (1638): Third Day, pp. 202-8.
  • V. DESCARTES. Discourse on Method (1637): pt. II, VI. Principles of Philosophy (1644): Letter from the Author, pt. I, pt. II, pt. IV.
  • VI. BOYLE. The Excellency and Grounds of the Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy (1674).
  • VII. HUYGENS. Treatise on Light (1678): Preface, ch. I.
  • VIII. NEWTON. Principia (1687): Preface to First Edition, Scholium, Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy, General Scholium. Opticks (1704): Query 31.
  • Chronology. Bibliography.