William Harvey's Natural Philosophy - Hardcover

French, Roger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521455359 ISBN 13: 9780521455350

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1994

Synopsis

William Harvey (1578-1657) was one of the greatest figures in the history of medicine. His major contribution to the medical sciences was his discovery of the circulation of blood. He was also the personal physician to both James I and Charles I. William Harvey's natural philosophy was a view of the world that he developed during his education in Cambridge and Padua. It contained ways of structuring knowledge, formulating questions, and arriving at answers that directed the program of work in which he discovered the circulation of the blood. This book, the most extensive discussion of Harvey to be published in over 25 years, reports extensively on the views of those who argued for and against him. Professor French studies the major changes in natural philosophy in a period considered central to the history of science, and argues that natural philosophy, and particularly Harvey's specialty within it--anatomy--were theocentric. This work, which makes extensive use of primary (Latin) sources and is illustrated throughout with seventeenth-century illustrations, should be of value to historians of medicine and physicians interested in the history of their field.

About this title

From the Back Cover

William Harvey's natural philosophy was a view of the world that he had put together during his education in Cambridge and Padua. It contained ways of structuring knowledge, formulating questions and arriving at answers that directed the programme of work in which he discovered the circulation of the blood. Harvey addressed himself to people with related philosophies, and it is necessary to be aware of seventeenth-century modes of exposition and evaluation of knowledge if we are to understand how Harvey's contemporaries reacted to his work. This book, the most extensive discussion of Harvey to be published for over twenty-five years, reports extensively on the views of those who wrote for and against him. It is a study of a major change in natural philosophy and of the forces which acted for and, equally important, against change. In a period traditionally central to historians of science, it is argued here that natural philosophy, and particularly Harvey's specialty within it - anatomy - was theocentric. Harvey's contribution was experiment; and the revolution which occurred in the seventeenth century was concerned not with science but with experiment and the status of natural knowledge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521455359
• ISBN 13: 9780521455350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408