The author of this book offers a uniquely comprehensive and documented history of theories of the atom from Democritus to the twentieth century. He has drawn on the results of his own scholarly research as well as that of others to produce a challenging work.

Hersteller:
Springer Verlag GmbH
juergen.hartmann@springer.com
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Chapter 1. Atomism: Science or philosophy? 1.1Introduction 1.2Science and philosophy transcend the evidence for them 1.3 How the claims of science are confirmed 1.4 Inference to the best explanation 1.5 Science involves experimental activity and conceptual innovation 1.6 Reading the past in the light of the present 1.7 Writing history of science backwards 1.8 The structure of the book 1.9 A note on terminology Chapter 2. Democritean atomism 2.1Philosophy as the refinement of common sense by reason 2.2Parmenides and the denial of change 2.3The atomism of Leucippus and Democritus: The basics 2.4Atomic explanations of properties 2.5Atomic explanations of specific phenomena 2.6Atomism as a response to Zeno¿s paradoxes 2.7Aristotle¿s critique of indivisible magnitudes 2.8Did Democritus propose indivisible magnitudes as a response to Zeno? 2.9Democritean atomism: an appraisal Chapter 3. How did Epicurus¿s garden grow? 3.1Epicureanism 3.2Physical atoms in the void 3.3Atoms and indivisible magnitudes 3.4Atomic speeds and observable speeds 3.5Gravity 3.6Explaining the phenomena by appeal only to atoms and the void 3.7The status and role of the evidence of the senses 3.8Knowledge of atoms: Getting closer? Chapter 4. Atomism in its Ancient Greek perspective 4.1Philosophical atomism versus less ambitious projects 4.2The Aristotelian alternative 4.3Hints of a granular structure of matter in Aristotle 4.4Granular versus ultimate structures 4.5Greek a¿¿science¿ Chapter 5. From the Ancient Greeks to the dawn of science 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Natural minima 5.3 Hardline vesus liberal interpretations of Aristotle 5.4 Aristotelianism and alchemy 5.5 Geber¿s a¿¿atomism¿ 5.6 The statis and fate of Geber¿s integration of Aristotle and alchemy 5.7 Currents of thought leading to Sennert¿s atomism 5.8 Sennert¿s atomic theory 5.9 The status of Sennert¿s atomism Chapter 6. Atomism, experiment and the mechanical philosophy: The work of Robert Boyle 6.1What was scientific about the scientific revolution? 6.2Boyle¿s version of the mechanical philosophy 6.3Boyle¿s case for the mechanical philosophy 6.4Boyle¿s use of the microscopic/microscopic analogy 6.5Boyle¿s experimental science as distinct from the mechanical philosophy 6.6Empirical support for the mechanical philosophy 6.7The lack of fertility of the mechanical philosophy 6.8The various senses of a¿¿mechanical¿ 6.9Boyle¿s mechanical philosophy and experimental support for atoms Chapter 7. Newton¿s atomism and its fate 7.1Introduction 7.2Newton¿s science 7.3Newton¿s atomism 7.4The case for Newton¿s atomism 7.5The fate of Newtonian atomism in the eighteenth century Chapter 8. The emergence of modern chemistry with no debt to atomism 8.1Introduction. 8.2Klein on Geoffroy and the concepts of chemical substance, compound and combination 8.3Reflections on Klein¿s account of chemical combination 8.4Boyle¿s chemistry: Some preliminaries 8.5Boyle¿s mechanical rather than chemical construal of substances 8.6Boyle on the properties of chemical corpuscles 8.7Chemical properties and essential properties 8.8The mechanical philosophy versus the experimental philosophy 8.9Newtonian affinities 8.10 Chemistry from Newton to Lavoisier Chapter 9. Dalton¿s atomism and its creative modification via formulae 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Dalton¿s atomism 9.3 Dalton¿s atomic chemistry 9.4 The introduction of chemical formulae by Berzelius 9.5 The binary theory of Berzelius 9.6 Chemical formulae and the rise of organic chemistry 9.7 Chemical formulae a victory for atomism? 9.8 Dalton¿s resistance to chemical formulae 9.9 Is my critique of nineteenth-century atomism positivist? Chapter 10. From Avogadro to Cannizzaro: The Old Story. 10.1 Introduction.. 10.2 Avogadro¿s hypothes ...