Hankins T.L. Science and the Enlightenment

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. — 225 p. — (Cambridge Studies in the History of Science). — ISBN 9780521243490, 0521243491.Science and the Enlightenment is a general history of eighteenth-century science covering both the physical and life sciences. It places the scientific developments of the century in the cultural context of the Enlightenment and reveals the extent to which scientific ideas permeated the thought of the age. The book takes advantage of topical scholarship, which is rapidly changing our understanding of science during the eighteenth century. In particular it describes how science was organized into fields that were quite different from those we know today. Professor Hankins's work is a much needed addition to the literature on eighteenth-century science. His study is not technical; it will be of interest to all students of the Enlightenment and the history of science, as well as to the general reader with some background in science.Preface
The Character of the Enlightenment
Reason and Nature
Science and Literature
The Categories of Science
The Mechanical Philosophy
Science and Philosophy
Mathematics and the Exact Sciences
The Meaning of Analysis
Motion Along a Curve
Mechanical Principles
Mechanics and Enlightenment Philosophy
Three Tests of Universal Gravitation
Positional Astronomy
Physical Astronomy
Experimental Physics
The Subtle Fluids
Electricity
The Early History of Electricity
Benjamin Franklin's One-Fluid Theory
The Leyden Jar
The Discovery of Current Electricity
Heat and Temperature
Latent Heat
Chemistry
The Vaporous State of Matter
Gas Chemistry
The Problem of Combustion
The Phlogiston Theory
Lavoisier's Experiments on Combustion
Oxygen and the Vaporous State of Matter
The Rationalization of Chemistry
Chemical Atomism
Natural History and Physiology
The Mechanical Philosophy and the Study of Life
Experimental Physiology
Generation
The Revival of Preformation
Natural History
The Moral Sciences
The Science of Man
Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws
The Encyclopédie
Scientific Academies
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Critic of Society
The Physiocrats
Probability Theory and the Science of Man
Legal Reform
Social Mathematics
The End of the Enlightenment
Bibliographic Essay
Sources ofQuotations
Index