コペルニクス、ケプラー、ガリレオ、ニュートンらの業績に代表される17世紀の科学革命。その分野は、物理学、天文学、化学、医学、地質学など、多方面に及びました。これらの技術革新が進んだ当時の社会的状況を踏まえながら、近代科学発展の歴史を新たな視点で読み解きます。(cf. Copernicus, #487; Galileo, #044; Newton, #158)
   

• Includes refreshing new insights on developments in early modern science
• Emphasizes the sociological context of the period and the world view at the time
• Covers several areas of science including physics, astronomy, chemistry, life sciences, and medicine and introduces the characters and people of the time

   
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed such fervent investigations of the natural world that the period has been called the 'Scientific Revolution.' New ideas and discoveries not only redefined what human beings believed, knew, and could do, but also forced them to redefine themselves with respect to the strange new worlds revealed by ships and scalpels, telescopes and microscopes, experimentation and contemplation. 

Driven by religious devotion, by practical need, by the promise of fame and profit, or by the simple desire to know, a broad range of thinkers and workers explored and reconceptualized the world around them. Explanatory systems were made, discarded, and remade by some of the best-known names in the entire history of science - Copernicus, Galileo, Newton - and by many others less recognized but no less important. 

In this Very Short Introduction Lawrence M. Principe explores the exciting developments in the sciences of the stars (astronomy, astrology, and cosmology), the sciences of earth (geography, geology, hydraulics, pneumatics), the sciences of matter and motion (alchemy, chemistry, kinematics, physics), the sciences of life (medicine, anatomy, biology, zoology), and much more. The story is told from the perspective of the historical characters themselves, emphasizing their background, context, reasoning, and motivations, and dispelling well-worn myths about the history of science.