Aris R., Davis H.T., Stuewer R.H. (eds.) Springs of Scientific Creativity: Essays on Founders of Modern Science

University of Minnesota Press, 1983. — 342 p.Mathematician Henri Poincaré was boarding a bus when he realized that the transformations of non-Euclidian geometry were just those he needed in his research on the theory of functions. He did not have to interrupt his conversation, still less to verify the equation in detail; his insight was complete at that point. Poincaré’s insight into his own creativity -- his awareness that preliminary cogitation and the working of the subconscious had prepared his mind for an intuitive flash of recognition -- is just one of many possible analyses of scientific creativity, a subject as fascinating as it is elusive.
The authors of this book have chosen to search for the springs of scientific creativity by examining the lives and work of a dozen innovative thinkers in the fields of mathematics, physics, and chemistry from the seventeenth down to the mid-twentieth century. First prepared for delivery in a lecture series held at the University of Minnesota, these essays delve into the social, psychological, and intellectual factors that fostered creativity in the lives of Galilei Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. P. Joule, James Cler Maxwell, Josiah Willard Gibbs, Lord Rayleigh, Elmer Sperry and Adrian Leverkühn, Walter Nernst, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Michael Polanyi, and John von Neumann.Galileo and Early Experimentation (by Thomas B. Settle).
Newton's Development of the Principia (by Richard S. Westfall).
The Origins and Consequences of Certain of J. P. Joule's Scientific Ideas (by Donald S. L. Cardwell).
Maxwell's Scientific Creativity (by C. W. F. Everitt).
The Scientific Style of Josiah Willard Gibbs (by Martin J. Klein).
Principal Scientific Contributions of John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh (by John N. Howard).
Elmer Sperry and Adrian Leverkuehn: A Comparison of Creative Styles (by Thomas P. Hughes).
Walther Nernst and the Application of Physics to Chemistry (by Erwin N. Hiebert).
Albert Einstein and the Creative Act: The Case of Special Relativity (by Stanley Goldberg).
Erwin Schroedinger and the Descriptive Tradition (by Linda Wessels).
Michael Polanyi's Creativity in Chemistry (by William T. Scott).
The Role of John von Neumann in the Computer Field (by Herman H. Goldstine).