Shank, J. B. (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 464 pages
Language: English
We have grown accustomed to the idea that scientific theories are embedded in their place and time. But in the case of the development of mathematical physics in eighteenth-century France, the relationship was extremely close. In Before Voltaire, J.B. Shank shows that although the publication of Isaac Newton’s Principia in 1687 exerted strong influence, the development of calculus-based physics is better understood as an outcome that grew from French culture in general. Before Voltaire explores how Newton’s ideas made their way not just through the realm of French science, but into the larger world of society and culture of which Principia was an intertwined part. Shank also details a history of the beginnings of calculus-based mathematical physics that integrates it into the larger intellectual currents in France at the time, including the Battle of the Ancients and the Moderns, the emergence of wider audiences for science, and the role of the newly reorganized Royal Academy of Sciences. The resulting book offers an unprecedented cultural history of one the most important and influential elements of Enlightenment science.
...MoreReview Lucia Bucciarelli (2021) Review of "Before Voltaire: The French Origins of “Newtonian” Mechanics, 1680-1715". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 396-398).
Review Marius Stan (2019) Review of "Before Voltaire: The French Origins of “Newtonian” Mechanics, 1680-1715". Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 347-354).
Review G. Matthew Adkins (2020) Review of "Before Voltaire: The French Origins of “Newtonian” Mechanics, 1680-1715". American Historical Review (pp. 729-730).
Review Marco Storni (2020) Review of "Before Voltaire: The French Origins of “Newtonian” Mechanics, 1680-1715". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 581-583).
Review Michel Blay (2019) Review of "Before Voltaire: The French Origins of “Newtonian” Mechanics, 1680-1715". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 598-599).
Similar Citations
Chapter
Maltese, Giulio;
(2006)
On the Changing Fortune of the Newtonian Tradition in Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000774503/)
Thesis
Gerald Charles Lawrence;
(1968)
The Assimilation of Newtonian Mechanics, 1687-1736
(/isis/citation/CBB617132624/)
Article
Massimi, Michela;
(2011)
Kant's Dynamical Theory of Matter in 1755, and Its Debt to Speculative Newtonian Experimentalism
(/isis/citation/CBB001230565/)
Book
Pulte, Helmut;
(2005)
Axiomatik und Empirie: Eine wissenschaftstheoriegeschichtliche Untersuchung zur Mathematischen Naturphilosophie von Newton bis Neumann
(/isis/citation/CBB000740068/)
Chapter
Raffaele Pisano;
Paolo Bussotti;
(2017)
Newton’s Principia Geneva Edition: The Action-and-Reaction Law. Historical and Nature of Science Reflexions
(/isis/citation/CBB141178408/)
Book
Niccolò Guicciardini;
(2021)
Isaac Newton: Filosofo della Natura, interprete della Scrittura, cronologo degli Antichi Regni
(/isis/citation/CBB698089545/)
Book
Janiak, Andrew;
Schliesser, Erick;
(2012)
Interpreting Newton: Critical Essays
(/isis/citation/CBB001500334/)
Book
Paolo Casini;
(2006)
Hypotheses non fingo: tra Newton e Kant
(/isis/citation/CBB557395471/)
Essay Review
Demeter, Tamás;
(2014)
Newton for Philosophers
(/isis/citation/CBB001500335/)
Article
Hutton, Sarah;
(2004)
Emilie du Châtelet's Institutions de physique as a Document in the History of French Newtonianism
(/isis/citation/CBB000471143/)
Book
Borzeszkowski, Horst-Heino von;
Wahsner, Renate;
(1980)
Newton und Voltaire: Zur Begründung und Interpretation der klassischen Mechanik
(/isis/citation/CBB000016351/)
Chapter
Huggett, Nick;
(2012)
What Did Newton Mean by “Absolute Motion”?
(/isis/citation/CBB001500345/)
Article
Hanley, William;
(1991)
Voltaire, Newton, and the law
(/isis/citation/CBB000030368/)
Chapter
Arato, Franco;
(2005)
Minerva and Venus---Algarotti's Newton's Philosophy for the Ladies
(/isis/citation/CBB000772978/)
Book
Joly, Bernard;
(2011)
Descartes et la chimie
(/isis/citation/CBB001320157/)
Article
Radelet-de Grave, P.;
(1998)
La “diatribe du Docteur Akakia, médecin du pape”
(/isis/citation/CBB000081907/)
Article
Ducheyne, Steffen;
(2005)
Newton's Notion and Practice of Unification
(/isis/citation/CBB000501554/)
Chapter
Gerhard Wiesenfeldt;
(2017)
The Practical Tradition of Dutch Newtonianism
(/isis/citation/CBB640752152/)
Chapter
Schüller, Volkmar;
(2001)
Samuel Clarke's Annotations in Jacques Rohault's Traité de Physique, and How They Contributed to Popularising Newton's Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB000101962/)
Article
John Henry;
Steffen Ducheyne;
(2021)
Letter to the Editor
(/isis/citation/CBB441829838/)
Revue des Questions Scientifiques
Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, London
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Be the first to comment!