The Problem of the Earth's Shape from Newton to Clairaut: The Rise of Mathematical Science in Eighteenth-Century Paris and the Fall of 'Normal' Science - Hardcover

Greenberg, John L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521385415 ISBN 13: 9780521385411

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Synopsis

In this book, Greenberg investigates the spread of Newtonian physics in the French scientific community during the eighteenth century. His central thesis is that Newton's own publications contributed only a small part of the work done on the shape of the earth. Continental scholars, especially Leibniz, influenced developments in Paris, and other French scholars, including Bouguer and Maupertuis, all contributed work used by Alexis-Claude Clairaut in developing his mature theory of the earth's shape. The evolution of Parisian physics, then, proved to be not merely the replacement of one paradigm with another, as might be expected from Thomas Kuhn's formulations about scientific revolutions, but a long, complicated process involving many areas of research and contributions from the entire scientific world. "Normal" science contributed not only anomalies present in earlier theories, but a good part of the solution.

About this title

Book Description:

This thorough, technical study of the spread of Newtonian physics in France, using the particular problem of the Earthts shape, shows in detail that the adoption of the new paradigm in place of the Cartesian one was far more subtle than followers of the Kuhnian model might expect. Many continental and Parisian scholars contributed to the eventual formation of a mature theory of the earthts shape in what was as much an evolutionary as revolutionary process. Highly technical, the book lays out a series of mathematical discoveries only rarely analyzed by modern Western scholars.

From the Back Cover:

This book investigates, through the problem of the earth's shape, part of the development of post-Newtonian mechanics by the Parisian scientific community during the first half of the eighteenth century. In the Principia Newton first raised the question of the earth's shape. John Greenberg shows how continental scholars outside France influenced efforts in Paris to solve the problem, and he also demonstrates that Parisian scholars, including Bouguer and Fontaine, did work that Alexis-Claude Clairaut used in developing his mature theory of the earth's shape. The evolution of Parisian mechanics proved not to be the replacement of a Cartesian paradigm by a Newtonian one, a replacement that might be expected from Thomas Kuhn's formulations about scientific revolutions, but a complex process instead involving many areas of research and contributions of different kinds from the entire scientific world. Greenberg both explores the myriad of technical problems that underlie the historical development of part of post-Newtonian mechanics, which have only been rarely analyzed by Western scholars, and embeds his technical discussion in a framework that involves social and institutional history politics, and biography. Instead of focusing exclusively on the historiographical problem, Greenberg shows as well that international scientific communication was as much a vital part of the scientific progress of individual nations during the first half of the eighteenth century as it is today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0521385415
• ISBN 13: 9780521385411
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 800