Customer Reviews

Meanest Foundations and Nobler Superstructures: Hooke, Newton and "the Compounding of the Celestiall Motions of the Planetts" (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science)

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In this marvelously written, well-documented book, Ofer Gal presents a philosophico-historical account of one of the greatest intellectual adventures in the history of science. Gal follows the tense correspondence between these two great men, Hook and Newton, tells the fascinating story of their social relationships - a story of class and prestige, competition and envy, mathematics and experimentation - and offers a philosophical analysis of the events, a pragmatic analysis which sheds a new light, a new sympathetic light, on Hook's role in this drama. For anyone who is interested in the history of science, or, quite simply, in science in general, this is a must read.