1543: On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, by Nicolaus Copernicus
On the Fabric of the
Human Body, by Andreas Vesalius
1609: The New Astronomy,
by Johannes Kepler
1620: The New Organon,
by Francis Bacon
1628: An Anatomical
Study of the Motion of the Heart, by William Harvey
1637: Discourse on
Method, by RenŽ Descartes
1638: Discourses on the
Two New Sciences, by Galileo Galilei
1660: New Experiments
Physico-Mechanicall, by Robert Boyle
1687: Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy, by Isaac Newton
1704: Optics, by
Isaac Newton
1. Should Copernicus have happily accepted
Osiander's preface?
2. Which, if any, of Newton's rules do you
agree with? Which rationales? Which examples?
3. What distinguishes science from
business?
But with regard to the
material world, we can at least go so far as this-we can perceive that events
are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in
each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws.
-William Whewell, quoted
in Darwin's Origin