Trevor H. Levere - Böcker

This book contains an edition of the Minutes of the Coffee House Philosophical Society 1780-1787, as transcribed by William Nicholson, the secretary to the society. The 1780s were exciting years for science and for its applications, and experimental philosophy and industrial development were closely interwoven. This coffee house society provided a group of natural philosophers with the oppotunity to discuss the topics that most interested them. The minutes themselves, unique in their completeness, constitute a continuous record of the fortnightly meetings of a group of leading natural philosophers, instrument makers, physicians, and industrialist entrepreneurs. They are an important resource for historians of politics and society (including the industrial revolution), as well as for historians of science and technology.In addition to a fully edited edition of the Minute book, and brief biographies of all the members, the book includes essays by Jan Golinski on the members' discussion about phlogiston and other issues relating to the chemical revolution, and by Larry Stewart on the reforming, radical, and industrial contexts of the networks to which the members belonged.One of the standard criticisms of English science in the late eighteenth century is its isolation from the rest of Europe. These minutes offer a very different picture.The members, the Irish chemist Richard Kirwan taking the most active role, discussed current issues in science and reported on scientific and industrial advances from all Europe, and even from Hudson's Bay, showing early English awareness of the latest developments. The Minute Book gives a sense of history at a particular period, and is invaluable to all historians, whatever their specialism.

The British Arctic Expedition of 1875–6 was the first major British naval expedition to the high Arctic where science was almost as important as geographical exploration. Henry Wemyss Feilden, an army officer, was chosen as one of two naturalists on board HMS Alert. He kept a detailed daily journal which is presented in this volume, with a detailed introduction by the volume editor, Trevor H. Levere.

This is a study of the nature and role of science in the exploration of the Canadian Arctic. It covers the century that began with the British Royal Naval expeditions of 1818 and ended with the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18. Professor Levere focuses on the imperialistic dimensions and nationalistic aspirations that informed arctic science, and situates its rise in the context of economic and military history of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe and North America. Accessibly written and prodigiously researched, Science and the Canadian Arctic is of interest to an audience of historians, environmental scientists and anyone interested in the Arctic.

Poetry Realized in Nature shows Coleridge's method at work and, more generally, explores German philosophical science, Naturphilosophie, and the relations between science and romantic thought. It combines a biographical approach with intellectual history, reconstructing Coleridge's imaginative enterprise across the whole range of the physical and life sciences. Coleridge strove for coherence in all realms of thought, and so the ways in which he explored scientific ideas illuminate all aspects of his inquiring spirit. He sought self-knowledge, which required a knowledge of man and mind in relation to nature and God. There was, accordingly, an intimate relationship between his theology and philosophy, and his ideas about the natural world. Science functioned as a touchstone in his philosophy, thus indirectly reinforcing his theology. The ideas he derived from science also bore directly on his critical doctrines, including the theory of imagination.

This is a study of the nature and role of science in the exploration of the Canadian Arctic. It covers the century that began with the British Royal Naval expeditions of 1818 and ended with the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18. Professor Levere focuses on the imperialistic dimensions and nationalistic aspirations that informed arctic science, and situates its rise in the context of economic and military history of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe and North America. Accessibly written and prodigiously researched, Science and the Canadian Arctic is of interest to an audience of historians, environmental scientists and anyone interested in the Arctic.

This collection of essays is a tribute to Stillman Drake by some of his friends and colleagues, and by others on whom his work has had a formative influence. It is difficult to know him without succumbing to his combination of discipline and enthusiasm, even in fields remote from Renaissance physics and natural philosophy; and so he should not be surprised in this volume to see emphases and methods congenial to him, even on topics as remote as Darwin or the chemical revolution. Therein lies whatever unity the discerning reader may find in this book, beyond the natural focus and coherence of the largest section, on Galileo, and the final section on Drake's collection of books, a major and now accessible resource for research in the field that he has made his own. We have chosen, as the occasion for presenting the volume to Stillman Drake, Galileo's birthday; Galileo has had more than one birthday party in Toronto since Drake came to the University of Toronto. As for the title, it reflects a shared conviction that experiment is the key to science; it is what scientists do. Drake has already asserted that emphasis in the title of his magisterial Galileo at Work, and we echo it here. Those who have had the privilege and pleasure of working and arguing with Stillman over the years know his tenacity, penetration, and vigour. They also know his generosity and humility. We owe him much.

Chemistry explores the way atoms interact, the constitution of the stars, and the human genome. Knowledge of chemistry makes it possible for us to manufacture dyes and antibiotics, metallic alloys, and other materials that contribute to the necessities and luxuries of human life. In Transforming Matter, noted historian Trevor H. Levere emphasizes that understanding the history of these developments helps us to appreciate the achievements of generations of chemists. Levere examines the dynamic rise of chemistry from the study of alchemy in the seventeenth century to the development of organic and inorganic chemistry in the age of government-funded research and corporate giants. In the past two centuries, he points out, the number of known elements has quadrupled. And because of synthesis, chemistry has increasingly become a science that creates much of what it studies. Throughout the book, Levere follows a number of recurring themes: theories about the elements, the need for classification, the status of chemical science, and the relationship between practice and theory.He illustrates these themes by concentrating on some of chemistry's most influential and innovative practitioners. Transforming Matter provides an accessible and clearly written introduction to the history of chemistry, telling the story of how the discipline has developed over the years.

For forty years, beginning with the publication of the first modern English translation of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's scientific work of our age. During that time, he published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. Drake also published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. The three-volume collection Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science includes 80 of those papers. Volume I contains a bibliography of the writings of Stillman Drake, biographical sketches of both Galileo and Drake, and various essays covering the broad range of Galileo's scientific endeavors, including outlines of the humanistic and religious background of his era. Other essays take up textual and bibliographical issues, analysing Galileo's mass of notes, treatises, and numerous fragments, previously collected in folios, manuscripts, and unreliable copies. Drake's wide-ranging essays cover Galileo's place in the philosophy of science, his relation to his forebears and impact on posterity, and his contribution to astronomy. In addition, the essays take up ongoing controversies, such as Galileo's stance on the affinity of science with the corpus of human knowledge. Volume I of Stillman Drake's Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science serves as a comprehensive introduction to Galileo's life, science, and writings, and with its forthcoming companion volumes, will indeed be a fitting tribute to the memory of one of Canada's most accomplished scholars.

For forty years, beginning with the publication of the first modern English translation of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's scientific work of our age. During that time, he published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. Drake also published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. The three-volume collection Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science includes 80 of those papers. Volume I contains a bibliography of the writings of Stillman Drake, biographical sketches of both Galileo and Drake, and various essays covering the broad range of Galileo's scientific endeavors, including outlines of the humanistic and religious background of his era. Other essays take up textual and bibliographical issues, analysing Galileo's mass of notes, treatises, and numerous fragments, previously collected in folios, manuscripts, and unreliable copies. Drake's wide-ranging essays cover Galileo's place in the philosophy of science, his relation to his forebears and impact on posterity, and his contribution to astronomy. In addition, the essays take up ongoing controversies, such as Galileo's stance on the affinity of science with the corpus of human knowledge. Volume I of Stillman Drake's Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science serves as a comprehensive introduction to Galileo's life, science, and writings, and with its forthcoming companion volumes, will indeed be a fitting tribute to the memory of one of Canada's most accomplished scholars.

For forty years, beginning with the publication of the first modern English translation of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Stillman Drake was the most original and productive scholar of Galileo's scientific work. During those years, Drake published sixteen books on Galileo, including translations of almost all the major writings, and Galileo at Work, the most comprehensive study of Galileo's life and works ever written. Drake also published about 130 papers, of which nearly 100 are on Galileo and the rest on related aspects of the history and philosophy of science. The three-volume collection Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science includes 80 of those papers. In the papers included in Volume III, Drake explores some of the more technical and practical aspects of Galileo's work, focusing on his contributions to scientific instrumentation. The essays then turn to the history of science, demonstrating the breadth of Drake's interests both beyond and relating to the work of Galileo. These interests are again evident in the final papers in the collection, in which Drake writes on the philosophy of science and language.This collection draws to conclusion Drake's writings on Galileo, capturing the influences and themes in Galileo's life and work.