Revolution in science

An exploration of the nature of scientific revolutions examines the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary idea Frontmatter Preface (page xi) I Science and Revolution 1 Introduction (page 3) 2 The Stages of Revolutions in Science (page 26) 3 Evidence for the Occuurence of Revolutions in Science (page 40) II Historical Perspective on 'Revolution' and 'Revolution in Science' 4 Transformations in the Concept of Revolution (page 51) 5 The Scientific Revolution: The First Recognition of Revolution in Science (page 77) 6 A Second Scientific Revolution and Others? (page 91) III Scientific Revolutionaries of the Seventeenth Century 7 The Copernican Revolution (page 105) 8 Kepler, Gilbert, and Galileo: A Revolution in the Physical Sciences? (page 126) 9 Bacon and Descartes (page 146) 10 The Newtonian Revolution (page 161) 11 Vesalius, Paracelsus, and Harvey: A Revolution in the Life Sciences? (page 176) IV Changing Concepts of Revolution in the Eighteenth Century 12 Transformations during the Enlightenment (page 197) 13 Eighteenth-Century Conceptions of Scientific Revolution (page 213) 14 Lavoisier and the Chemical Revolution (page 229) 15 Kant's Alleged Copernican Revolution (page 237) 16 The Changing Language of Revolution in Germany (page 254) 17 The Industrial Revolution (page 262) V Scientific Progress in the Nineteenth Century 18 By Revolution or Evolution? (page 273) 19 The Darwinian Revolution (page 283) 20 Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz (page 301) 21 Some Other Scientific Developments (page 313) 22 Three French Views: Saint-Simon, Comte, and Cournot (page 328) 23 The Influence of Marx and Engels (page 342) 24 The Freudian Revolution (page 352) VI The Twentieth Century, Age of Revolutions 25 The Scientists Speak (page 369) 26 The Historians Speak (page 389) 27 Relativity and Quantum Theory (page 405) 28 Einstein on Revolution in Science (page 435) 29 Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics: A Revolution in Earth Science (page 446) 30 Conclusion: Conversion as a Feature of Scientific Revolutions (page 467) Supplements (page 473) A Note on Citations and References (page 571) Notes (page 573) References (page 623) Index (page 679)

Only a scholar as rich in learning as I. Bernard Cohen could do justice to a theme so subtle and yet so grand. Spanning five centuries and virtually all of scientific endeavor, Revolution in Science traces the nuances that differentiate both scientific revolutions and human perceptions of them, weaving threads of detail from physics, mathematics, behaviorism, Freud, atomic physics, and even plate tectonics and molecular biology, into the larger fabric of intellectual history.

How did "revolution," a term from the physical sciences, meaning a turning again and implying permanence and recurrence—the cyclical succession of the seasons, the 'revolutions' of the planets in their orbits—become transformed into an expression for radical change in political and socioeconomic affairs, then become appropriated once again to the sciences?

How have political revolutions—French, American, Bolshevik—and such intellectual forces as Darwinism further modified the concept, from revolution in science as a dramatic break with the past to the idea that science progresses by the slow accumulation of knowledge? And what does each transformation in each historical period tell us about the deep conceptual changes in our image of the scientist and scientific activity?

Cohen's exploration seeks to uncover nothing less than the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea. His book is a probing analysis of the history of an idea and one of the most impressive surveys of the history of science ever undertaken.

Cohen traces the nuances that differentiate both scientific revolutions and human perceptions of them, weaving threads of details from physics, mathematics, behaviorism, Freud, atomic physics and molecular biology, into the larger fabric of intellectual history. Examining the transformations in the way scientists, historians, and philosophers have conceived of scientific change from the 17th century to the present, he analyzes idea of "revolution" and explores how the term "revolution" came to stand for radical change in political and socioeconomic affairs, and science. With case histories from the revolutions associated with the names of Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, Newton, and Einstein, as well as the Industrial and political revolutions, he details the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea. ISBN 0-674-76777-2 :$25.00 Science And Revolution -- Historical Perspective On 'revolution' And 'revolution In Science' -- Scientific Revolutionaries Of The Seventeenth Century -- Changing Concepts Of Revolution In The Eighteenth Century -- Scientific Progress In The Nineteenth Century -- The Twentieth Century, Age Of Revolutions. I. Bernard Cohen. Includes Bibliographic References (p. [623]-678) And Index.