Description
Book SynopsisRobert Schofield explores the rational elements of British experimental natural philosophy in the 18th century by tracing the influence of two opposing concepts of the nature of matter and its action--mechanism and materialism. Both concepts rested on the Newtonian interpretation of their proponents, although each developed more or less independent
Table of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Preface, pg. v*Contents, pg. vii*CHAPTER ONE. Newton's Legacy, pg. 3*CHAPTER TWO. Diffusion of a Newtonian Creed, pg. 19*CHAPTER THREE. Elaboration of a Theory, pg. 40*CHAPTER FOUR. Experimental Newtonianism, pg. 63*CHAPTER FIVE. Second Thoughts and the New Revelation, pg. 91*CHAPTER SIX. Newtonian Pagans and Heretics, pg. 115*CHAPTER SEVEN. Early Continental Interactions, pg. 134*CHAPTER EIGHT. The Imponderable Fluids, pg. 157*CHAPTER NINE. Vital Physiology and Elementary Chemistry, pg. 191*CHAPTER TEN. Forces, Fluid Dynamics, and Fields, pg. 235*CHAPTER ELEVEN. Interregnum, 1789-1815, pg. 277*BIBLIOGRAPHY, pg. 299*INDEX, pg. 323
