The Invention of Physical Science: Intersections of Mathematics, Theology and Natural Philosophy Since the Seventeenth Century Essays in Honor of Erwin N. Hiebert.

(HIEBERT, Erwin N. [Nick] 1919-2012) NYE, Mary Jo; RICHARDS, Joan & Roger STUEWER (eds.):

ISBN 10: 079231753X / ISBN 13: 9780792317531

Published by Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, etc., 1992

About this Item

Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket.

Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol. 139.

Modern physical science is constituted by specialized scientific fields rooted in experimental laboratory work and in rational and mathematical representations. Contemporary scientific explanation is rigorously differentiated from religious interpretation, although, to be sure, scientists sometimes do the philosophical work of interpreting the metaphysics of space, time, and matter. However, it is rare that either theologians or philosophers convincingly claim that they are doing the scientific work of physical scientists and mathematicians.
The rigidity of these divisions and differentiations is relatively new. Modern physical science was invented slowly and gradually through interactions of the aims and contents of mathematics, theology, and natural philosophy since the seventeenth century. In essays ranging in focus from seventeenth-century interpretations of heavenly comets to twentieth-century explanations of tracks in bubble chambers, ten historians of science demonstrate metaphysical and theological threads continuing to underpin the epistemology and practice of the physical sciences and mathematics, even while they became disciplinary specialties during the last three centuries. The volume is prefaced by tributes to Erwin N. Hiebert, whose teaching and scholarship have addressed and inspired attention to these issues.

Table of contents (10 chapters)
Natural Theology, Natural Philosophy, and the Certainty of Mathematics
Devils? Hells and Astronomers? Heavens: Religion, Method, and Popular Culture in Speculations About Life on Comets
Sara Schechner Genuth
Pages 3-26
The Doctrine of Chances Without Chance: Determinism, Mathematical Probability, and Quantification in the Seventeenth Century
Lorraine J. Daston
Pages 27-50
God, Truth, and Mathematics in Nineteenth Century England
Joan L. Richards
Pages 51-78
Problems of Contingency, Coherence, and Truth
Theologians, Science, and Theories of Truth in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Frederick Gregory
Pages 81-96
Equivalence, Pragmatic Platonism, and Discovery of the Calculus
Skuli Sigurdsson
Pages 97-116
The Aims and Foundations of Physical Science: The Cases of Electrical Physics, Psychophysics, and Physical Chemistry
The Training of German Research Physicist Heinrich Hertz
Jed Z. Buchwald
Pages 119-145
From Psychophysics to Phenomenalism: Mach and Hering on Color Vision
Richard L. Kremer
Pages 147-173
A Usable Past: Creating Disciplinary Space for Physical Chemistry
Diana Kormos Barkan
Pages 175-202
Explanation and Discovery: The Claims of Chemistry, Physics, and Fortran
Physics and Chemistry: Commensurate or Incommensurate Sciences?
Mary Jo Nye
Pages 205-224
Fortran, Physics, and Human Nature
Peter Galison
Pages 225-260.

Seller Inventory # 25492

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Invention of Physical Science: Intersections of Mathematics, Theology and Natural Philosophy Since the Seventeenth Century Essays in Honor of Erwin N. Hiebert.
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, etc.
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 079231753X
• ISBN 13: 9780792317531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Modern physical science is constituted by specialized scientific fields rooted in experimental laboratory work and in rational and mathematical representations. Contemporary scientific explanation is rigorously differentiated from religious interpretation, although, to be sure, scientists sometimes do the philosophical work of interpreting the metaphysics of space, time, and matter. However, it is rare that either theologians or philosophers convincingly claim that they are doing the scientific work of physical scientists and mathematicians.
The rigidity of these divisions and differentiations is relatively new. Modern physical science was invented slowly and gradually through interactions of the aims and contents of mathematics, theology, and natural philosophy since the seventeenth century. In essays ranging in focus from seventeenth-century interpretations of heavenly comets to twentieth-century explanations of tracks in bubble chambers, ten historians of science demonstrate metaphysical and theological threads continuing to underpin the epistemology and practice of the physical sciences and mathematics, even while they became disciplinary specialties during the last three centuries. The volume is prefaced by tributes to Erwin N. Hiebert, whose teaching and scholarship have addressed and inspired attention to these issues.