A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 13
The Preliterate Beginnings......Page 17
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia......Page 18
The Pre-Socratic Natural Philosophers......Page 22
Hippocratic Medicine......Page 34
Plato......Page 37
Life......Page 43
Works: Aristotle\'s Writings and Their Preservation......Page 44
Aristotle\'s Achievements......Page 49
Aristotle\'s Cosmos and Natural Philosophy......Page 53
The Scope of Aristotle\'s Natural Philosophy......Page 58
Aristotle’s Approach......Page 59
Neoplatonism and Its Approach to Aristotle......Page 68
Philoponus and Simplicius......Page 74
The Translations......Page 77
The Beginnings: Nestorian and Monophysite Christian Translators......Page 78
Al-Nadım’s “Fihrist”: A Catalogue of Translations......Page 79
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (808-873)......Page 81
Translations in Baghdad......Page 83
The Fate of Natural Philosophy in Islam......Page 84
Three Levels of the Intellectual Hierarchy......Page 85
Muslim Natural Philosophers......Page 86
The Assault against the Philosophers:al-Ghazali(1058-1111); Ibn as-Salah ash-Shahrazurı(d. 1245); and Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)......Page 103
Higher Education: The Madrasas......Page 106
The Marginal Existence of Islamic Natural Philosophy......Page 108
Roman Authors......Page 111
The Latin Encyclopedists: European Learning  to the Ninth Century......Page 113
Macrobius (fl. Early Fifth Century AD)......Page 114
Calcidius (fl. Fourth or Fifth Century AD)......Page 116
Isidore of Seville (ca. 560–636)......Page 117
Pseudo-Bede (ca. Second Half of Eleventh Century)......Page 118
The Twelfth Century and Its Immediate Antecedents......Page 121
Advances in Education and Learning......Page 123
Hostile Reception of the New Theology......Page 131
Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth Century......Page 132
Adelard of Bath (ca. 1080-d.ca.1152)......Page 133
Bernard Silvester (fl. 1145-1153)......Page 138
William of Conches (ca. 1090–d. after 1154)......Page 141
The World of the Translators......Page 146
Translations from Arabic into Latin......Page 148
Translations from Greek into Latin......Page 153
How Trustworthy Are Aristotle\'s Translated Texts?......Page 154
Pseudo-Aristotle: Works Falsely Attributed to Aristotle......Page 156
The Medieval University......Page 159
The Impact of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy in the Early Thirteenth Century to 1240......Page 162
William of Auvergne (ca. 1180-1249)......Page 164
University Lectures on Natural Philosophy......Page 168
The Classification of the Sciences and the Subject of Natural Philosophy......Page 171
Dominicus Gundissalinus (fl. 1140)......Page 172
Robert Kilwardby (d. 1279)......Page 174
Roger Bacon (ca. 1219-1292)......Page 177
Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great) (ca. 1200-1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)......Page 179
Anonymous Fourteenth-Century Treatise On Natural Philosophy......Page 181
The Occult Sciences and Natural Philosophy......Page 186
Natural Magic......Page 187
The Role of Magic in Medieval Natural Philosophy......Page 192
Textual Commentaries on the Works of Aristotle......Page 195
The Questions (\"Questiones\") Form of Commentary on Aristotle\'s Works......Page 198
John Buridan: On The Possibility of Other Worlds......Page 199
The Thematic Treatise, or \"Tractatus\"......Page 204
The Substantive Nature of Natural Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages......Page 206
Departures from Aristotle......Page 208
Thought Experiments and the Role of the Imagination......Page 216
Departures from Aristotle Based on Appeals to God\'s Absolute Power......Page 217
That Homogeneous Mixed Bodies of Unequal Weight Would Fall with the Same Speed in a Void......Page 225
Beyond Aristotle......Page 227
The Role of Experience in Medieval Natural Philosophy......Page 231
Was Aristotelian Natural Philosophy Science?......Page 250
Questions on Visual Rays, Rainbows, and Halos......Page 252
METEOROLOGY......Page 253
9 The Relations between Natural Philosophy and Theology......Page 255
The Disciplinary Relations Between Natural Philosophy and Theology......Page 263
Did God and Theology Play an Integral Role in Medieval Natural Philosophy?......Page 264
How a Few Significant Natural Philosophers Viewed the Relations Between Natural Philosophy and Theology......Page 267
The Relationship as Reflected in the Questions and Commentaries on the Works of Aristotle......Page 273
Did Natural Philosophy Influence Medieval Theology?......Page 278
The Fate of Medieval Natural Philosophy During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries......Page 290
The New Natural Philosophy of the Seventeenth Century......Page 294
The Transformation of Natural Philosophy......Page 296
The Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge......Page 301
The Forms of Literature in the New Natural Philosophy......Page 304
Scientific Societies......Page 305
Natural Magic......Page 306
Natural Philosophy and Religion......Page 309
The Medieval Background......Page 319
Francis Bacon: Natural Philosophy Is \"The Great Mother of the Sciences\"......Page 321
The Revolution in Natural Philosophy From The Middle Ages To The Nineteenth Century......Page 323
Isaac Newton Again......Page 329
Natural Philosophy as a Synonym for Physics and Science in the Nineteenth Century......Page 332
The Continuity of History and the Problem of Names and Terminology......Page 335
Conclusion......Page 339
Bibliography......Page 347
Index......Page 363