Companion to the History of Modern Science

The 67 chapters of this book constitute a descriptive and analytical guide to the development of Western science from AD 1500, and to the diversity and course of that development first in Europe and later across the world. The contributors, specialists from all parts of the world, present their chapters in clear, non-technical language, open to the non-specialist. Part One describes the methods and problems of research in the History of Science. It examines the relationship between Science and History, the available systems of historical interpretation and the philosophical problems concerning questions of discovery and reality. Part Two applies these methods to a wide range of fields, from the work of Newton to Relativity and Genetic Engineering, and presents a comprehensive picture of the history of scientific enterprise. There are full indexes of both subjects and names.