Controversies Within the Scientific Revolution

Abstract

1. Introduction. Controversies and the dialectical texture of the Scientific Revolution 2. Part I. Astronomy and mechanics 3. Honore Fabri S. J. and Galileo's law of fall: What kind of controversy? (by Elazar, Michael) 4. Galileo, the Jesuits, and the controversy over the comets: What was The Assayer really about? (by Gal, Ofer) 5. Fair-mindedness versus sophistry in the Galileo affair: Two controversies for the price of one (by Finocchiaro, Maurice) 6. Part II. Light and gravity 7. From cohesion to pesanteur: The origins of the 1669 debate on the causes of gravity (by Boantza, Victor D.) 8. Leibniz versus Newton on the nature of gravity and planetary motion (by Grannot, Nir) 9. The argumentative use of methodology: Lessons from a controversy following Newton's first optical paper (by Zemplen, Gabor) 10. Part III. Physiology and vitalism 11. Salient theories in the fossil debate in the early Royal Society: The influence of Johann Van Helmont (by Roos, Anna Marie) 12. Were the arguments of William Harvey convincing to his contemporaries? (by Cattani, Adelino) 13. Why was there no controversy over life in the Scientific Revolution? (by Wolfe, Charles T.) 14. Part IV. Human sciences and theology 15. The pre-Adamite controversy and the problem of racial difference in seventeenth-century natural philosophy (by Smith, Justin E.H.) 16. Scientific revolution in the moral sciences: The controversy between Samuel Pufendorf and the Lutheran theologians in the late seventeenth century (by Scattola, Merio) 17. Contributors 18. Index