Introduction
Setting the Scene
Plato and Aristotle
From the Roman Empire to the Empire of Islam
The Western Middle Ages
The Renaissance
Nicholas Copernicus anda New World
New Methods of Science
Bringing Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Together: Johannes Kepler
Mathematics and Mechanics: Galileo Galilei
Practice and Theory in Renaissance Medicine: William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood
The Spirit of System: René Descartes and the Mechanical Philosophy
The Royal Society and Experimental Philosophy
Experiment, Mathematics, and Magic: Isaac Newton
Newton's Legacy: Forces and Fluids (electricity and heat)
The Chemical Revolution: From Newton to John Dalton, via Priestley and Lavoisier
Natural Theology and Natural Order: Newtonian Optimism and the History of Science
The Making of Geology: From James Hutton to Charles Lyell via Catastrophism
The History of Plants and Animals: Successive Emergence or Evolution?
Religion and Progress in Victorian Britain: Robert Chambers versus Hugh Miller
Bringing it All Together?: Charles Darwin's Evolution
Darwinian Aftermaths: Religion; Social Science; Biology
Beyond Newton: Energy and Thermodynamics
Newton Deposed: Einstein and Relativity Theory
Mathematics Instead of a World Picture: From Atomism to Quantum Theory
Afterword
Index.