History of Astronomy (Fontana History of Science S.) - Tapa blanda

The Fontana History of Science

Astronomy is not only a field of scientific research capable of the most startling discoveries; it is the oldest of the exact sciences. It is fitting then that in this lucid, elegant and stimulating book Professor north devotes particular attention to both the earliest and the most recent developments.

Stressing the indispensability of an understanding of the heavens for the elementary calendrical calculations vital in all societies, professor North demonstrates how surveying the skies helped generate the geometrical and mathemetical principles crucial to early science in the Middle East and Greece, which in turn continued to underpin advances in astronomy right through to the revolutions in thinking achieved by Copernicus, Kepler and Newton.

Astronomy, North shows, has a history marked by continuity. It offers a powerful illustration of concentrated, progressive scientific endeavor and yet it has also been a complicated and many-sided enterprise, integrating metaphysical, religious and cosmological speculations with the down-to-earth practical skills needed, for example, for navigation and timekeeping. In assessing the social position of astronomers, Professor North deftly explores the tensions between these different roles.