Internet History of Science Sourcebook
Editor: Paul Halsall
This page is a subset of texts derived from the three major online Sourcebooks listed below. For more contextual information, for instance about the Islamic world, check
out these web sites.
For help in research, homework, and so forth see
Notes: |
In addition to direct links to documents, links are made to a
number of other web resources. |
2ND
|
Link to a secondary article, review or discussion on a given
topic. |
MEGA
|
Link to one of the megasites which track web
resources. |
WEB
|
Link to a website focused on a specific issue.. These are not
links to every site on a given topic, but to sites of serious educational value. |
CONTENTS
- General
- Ancient Near East
- Egypt
- Theory
- Mathematics
- Technology
- Medicine
- Greco-Roman Culture
- PreSocratics
- Materialists
- Pythagoreanism
- Eleatic School
- Sophists
- Atomists
- Critical Thought
- Theoretical Science
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Engineering
- Travel: Geography
- Latin Authors
- Byzantium
- Islam
- General
- Theory
- Medicine
- Impact
- Famous Muslim Scientists
- Latin Christendom
- Attitudes
- Medicine
- Late Medieval Physics
- Technology
- China
- India
- Scientific Revolution
- General
- Earlier/Alternative Ways of Understanding the Cosmos
- Theory
- Astronomy and Physics
- Medicine
- Freedom of Thought
- Scientific Societies
- The Enlightenment
- Spread of Scientific Ideas
- Attitudes
- Opposition to Religion
- Classical Science
- Astronomy
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Geology
- Medicine
- The Industrial Revolution
- The Agricultural Revolution of the 17th-18th Centuries
- The Revolution in the Manufacture of Textiles
- The Revolution in Power
- The Great Engineers
- The Process of Industrialization
- New Technologies
- The Steel Industry
- The Chemical Industry
- Electricity
- Efficiency, Automation and the Assembly Line
- Aviation
- Confidences and Disasters
- New Science: Darwin, Freud, Einstein
- General
- Geology
- Biology: Red in Tooth and Claw
- Reaction to Darwin
- Social Implications of Evolution
- Mathematics
- Physics: The End of the Classical Synthesis
- Chemistry
- Astronomy
- Psychology: The Obscurity of the Mind
- Philosophical Reflections: The End of Reason?
- Science and War Technology
- Scientists Reflections on Science and Meaning
- Science, Technology and the Transformation in the Means
of Production
- Biology: The DNA Revolution
- Space Exploration
- Computers
- Knowledge Based Production
- The Internet
- The World Environment: Cornucopeian Plenty or a Crisis Situation
- Moral Issues and Modern Science
- Use of Atomic Bomb
- Genetics and Human Society
- Further Resources in the History
of Science
- Webguides
- Source Material
- Other
General
Ancient Near East
Egypt
- Theory
-
The Memphite
Theology [At Internet Archive, from Creighton]
Ptah as creator god. This text has been presented as the source of Greek science. This is
unlikely!
- Mathematics
- Technology
- Medicine
Greco-Roman Culture
- PreSocratics
See 2ND
Study Guide [At
Brooklyn College]
- Materialists
- Pythagoreanism
- Eleatic School
- 2ND Parmenides, Empedocles [IEP Articles]
-
Parmenides (c.515-after 450 BCE)[At Hanover]
-
Parmenides (c.515-after 450 BCE): Fragments [At Internet Archive, from 4th Tetralogy]
-
Parmenides of Elea (c.515-after 450 BCE): On Nature (Peri Physis)
- Zeno of Elea (c.490-after
445 BCE)[At Hanover]
The puzzles still work!
-
Melissos (5th Cent
BCE)[At Hanover]
-
Empedocles (c.493-c.433 BCE): Fragments [At Internet Archive, from 4th Tetralogy]
A pluralistic answer to Parmenides.
- Empedocles (c.493-c.433 BCE): Going
Among Men as an Immmortal fragments 112, 146, 147 [At Eliade]
- Sophists
-
Xenophanes (c.570-c.470 BCE)[At Hanover]
-
Xenophanes (c.570-c.470 BCE)[At Then Again]
Atheistic views.
- Heraklitos (c.540-c.480 BCE) [At
WSU]
- Atomists
- Critical Thought
- Theoretical Science
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Engineering
- Travel: Geography
-
The Periplus [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
Written by a Greek resident of Alexandria in Egypt during the first century BCE, this text
is one of the oldest surviving accounts of the countries on Africa's east coast. A map
gives some idea of the size and scope of Africa and of the author's journey.
- Latin Authors
-
Pliny the Elder (23/4-79 CE): Natural
History in Latin [At Lacus Curtius][Full Text]
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Paul of Aigina: The Epitome,
excerpts. [a medical text]
- General
- Theory
- Ibn Rushd (Averroës) (1126-1198 CE): Religion & Philosophy,
c. 1190. The text is On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy, or in Arabic Kitab
fasl al-maqal, with its appendix (Damina). Appended is an extract from Kitab
al-kashf`an manahij al-adilla.
- Medicine
- Impact
- Famous Muslim Scientist Lists
The lists below seem to be part of a certain genre of list creation, usually to
make the claim (which is true) that Islam had a glorious role in the history of science.
None of them seem to address what happened after c. 1500 (the Western Intrusion was not
until c. 1800, so it will not do as an "excuse".)
- Attitudes
- Agobard of Lyons (9th Century): On Hail and
Thunder translated by Wendy Lewis
- Agobard of Lyons (9th Century): On
the Deception of Certain Signs translated by Wendy Lewis
- A Medieval Bestiary, c 1180 from British Library Additional Manuscript 11283 [with his advanced Latin class students]
- Adelard of Bath: Natural
Questions, c. 1137, on the impact of Muslim science in the West.
- Theophilus: An Essay
Upon Diverse Arts, c. 1125.
- Peter Abelard (1079-1142): Prologue to
Sic et Non, translated by Wendy Lewis
- Peter Abelard: Sic et
Non, excerpts, [At Internet Archive, from Clinch Valley College]
- Roger Bacon: On Experimental
Science, 1268.
-
Roger Bacon: On
Experimental Science, from Opus Majus, 13th century [At UVA]
- Roger Bacon: Despair About
Thirteenth Century Scholarship, from Compendium Studii Philosophiae, 1271.
- Medicine
- A Treatise from Salerno on Nutrition: De flore dietarum, in
Latin and Italian, [At Liber Liber]
- Late Medieval Physics
- Ockham, Scotus, Buridan
- John Buridan: Questions [c.1290-c.1360]
- Nicholas Oresme (1323-1382): Basic
Information [At St. Andrews]
An important late medieval scientist. Not all was dark before Copernicus. Oresme, Catholic
Bishop of Lisieux, wrote on the nature of light, and invented coordinate geometry long
before Descartes.
- Technology
China
India
Scientific Revolution
- General
- Earlier/Alternative Ways of Understanding the Cosmos
- WEB Alchemical Texts [At Alchemy Web]
A huge number of alchemical texts from from 16th-18th centuries.
- Theory
- Bernardino Telesio (1509–1588): from On the Nature of Things According to Proper Principles, 1565[At this Site]
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626): from First Book of Aphorisms [At
this Site]
-
Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Preface
to the Novum Organum [At Hanover]
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626): The New Atlantis,
1627 [At this Site]
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626): The New
Atlantis, 1626 [At ArtBin][Full Text]
-
Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Various Texts [Index at
Hanover]
- Ben Jonson (1573-1625): On Lord Francis Bacon,
1625 [At this Site]
- Voltaire (1694-1778): On Francis Bacon,
from Letters on the English or Lettres Philosophiques, c. 1778 [At this
Site]
- Réne Descartes (1596-1650): Discourse
on Method, 1637, extracts [At WSU]
-
Réne Descartes (1596-1650): Discourse on Method, 1637 [At Project Gutenberg][Full text]
-
Réne Descartes (1596-1650): Méditations, 1641 [At
Wright][Full text][Trilingual edition: Latin, French, and English]
- Astronomy and Physics
-
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543): Dedication of The
Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543 [At Bartleby];
Alternate Text [At
History World]
- Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543): The Revolutions of the
Heavenly Bodies, 1543, selection from main text, [At this Site]
- Tycho Brahe (1546-1601): Life [AT kth.se]
A web page with illustrations of Brahe's observations and system.
- Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): Laws
of Planetary Motion [At Hawaii]
A web page illustrating the laws in diagrams
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Letter to the Duchess
Christina of Tuscany, 1615 [At this Site]
RG Reading Guide
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913):
Article
-
Galileo's
Pendulum Experiments - a modern recreation [At Rice]
- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Optics, excerpts [At this
Site]
On atomic theory and induction.
- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy, excerpts [At this Site]
On the rules of reasoning in philosophy.
-
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy, excerpts [At Then Again]
-
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Three Laws of Motion,
in Latin [At The Latin Library]
-
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy, [facsimile of 1846 edition: may load slowly][at CMU] or here [At Tripod]
Complete text with illustrations.
- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Principia:
Book Two. Lemma II. [At Trinity College Dublin]
Newton describes what is essentially the Product Rule for differentiation, applying it to
calculate the `moments' of quantities that are expressed as products of powers of other
quantities whose moments are known.
-
Cambridge in the Time of
Newton [Modern Account][At History House]
- Medicine
-
Andreas Vesalius (1514-64): De humani
corporis fabrica, 1543, frontispiece of 1555 edition, [At Internet Archive, from UAB], and see
Detailed Images [At Medicina Antiqua]
See also Brief Bio [At
Plymouth], or here [At Virginia], or here [At Vanderbilt]
- Vesalius Image Archive [At
Vesalium.com]
Archive of medical and anatomical images. Not for the squeamish.
-
16th
Century Surgeon [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
- William Harvey (1578-1657): On The Motion of The Heart
And Blood In Animals, 1628 [At this Site]
- William Harvey (1578-1657): On the Motion of the Heart,
excerpts [At this Site]
- Freedom of Thought
- Scientific Societies
The Enlightenment
- Spread of Scientific Ideas
- Attitudes
- Opposition to Religion
Classical Science
The "Scientific Revolution" - understood as the time when a "paradigm
shift" took place, ended with Newton's achievements. From the late 17th century until
the late 19th century that vision of the cosmos was developed and filled in by what we now
call "classical science". The achievements of this period have not been negated
by the discoveries and theories of the late 19th and 20th centuries, but are now seen as
accurate only with certain boundaries.
- Astronomy
- Physics
- Chemistry
-
WEB Selected Classic Papers from the
History of Chemistry [At Lemoyne]
Full texts of many papers in the history fo Chemistry under the following headings:
- Analytical, instrumental, and spectroscopic techniques
- Atomic hypothesis and discrete nature of matter
- Biochemistry
- Bonding and Structure
- Combustion and calcination
- Electricity, electrochemistry, and electrolyte solutions
- The electron and electronic structure of matter
- Elements: nature, number, and discovery
- Environmental chemistry
- Gases
- Kinetics
- Nomenclature
- The nucleus: isotopes and radioactivity
- Organic chemistry
- Periodic table and periodic law
- Thermodynamics
- Others
-
WEB Classic Chemistry Page, by Carmen
Giunta [At Lemoyne]
-
WEB Classic
Papers from the history of Chemistry (and Some Physics too)
Over 50 papers in the the history of physics and Chemistry.
-
WEB ChemTeam
Is an all-round site for high school chemistry.
- Joseph Priestley: The
Discovery of Oxygen, 1776 [At this Site]
- Michael Faraday (1791-1867): The Chemical History of
A Candle, 1860 [At this Site]
- Louis Pasteur (1822-1895): Physiological Theory of
Fermentation, 1879 [At this Site]
- Geology
- Medicine
The Industrial Revolution
- The Agricultural Revolution of the 17th-18th Centuries
- Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): Of Agriculture,
1650 [At this Site]
- Turnips
-
John A. Mazis: The Potato [Modern
Account][At UMN]
- Field Rotation
- Animal Breeding
- The Revolution in the Manufacture of Textiles
- The Revolution in Power
- The Great Engineers
- The Process of Industrialization
- New Technologies
- The Steeel Industry
-
Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898): Autobiography,
1905, in chapter files, full text, with illustrations, [At Rochester]
- The Chemical Industry
- Steel
- Electricity
- Efficiency, Automation and the Assembly Line
- Aviation
- Confidences and Disasters
New Science: Darwin,
Freud, Einstein
- General
- Geology
- Biology: Red in Tooth and Claw
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): The Voyage of the Beagle,
1845 [At Literature.Org][Full Text]
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): On the Origin of Species,
1859 [At Literature.Org][Full Text]
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): On
the Origin of Species, 1859, extracts [At WSU]
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): On the Origin of Species,
1859, extracts [At Hanover]
-
Charles Darwin (1809-1882): The
Descent of Man, 1871 [At Project Gutenberg][Full Text]
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): The
Descent of Man, 1871, excerpts [At this Site]
- Charles Darwin (1809-1882): The Descent of Man,
1871, excerpts on Sexual Selection [At this Site]
-
Thomas H. Huxley (1825-95): The
Crayfish: An Introduction to the Study of Zoology, 1880, full text [At Alberta]
-
Maurice-terlinck (1862-1949): The
Life of the Bee [La Vie des Abeilles], translated from French into English
by Alfred Sutro, full text [At ibiblio]
- Reaction to Darwin
- Social Implications of Evolution
- Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Progess: Its Law and Causes,
1857, excerpts [At this Site]
Social Darwinism by its founder. Note the date!
- Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): First Principles,
1862 [At McMaster][Full Text]
- Walter Bagehot: The Use of
Conflict, 1872 [At this Site]
An application of evolutionary thought to military conflict.
- Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895): The Method of Scientific
Investigation, 1863 [At this Site]
- Thomas H. Huxley (1825-95): Science and Culture,
1880 [At this Site]
- Thomas Henry Huxley: The Struggle for
Existence, 1888 [At this Site]
-
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895): Evolution and Ethics,
1894 [At Project Gutenberg]
- Andrew White: The
Warfare of Science and Theology in Christendom 1898 [At Hanover]
- Karl Pearson: National
Life From the Standpoint of Science, 1900 [At this Site]
- Charles Peirce: The Fixation of
Belief [At this Site]
- William Graham Sumner (1840-1910): The Challenge of Facts, pub.
1914 [At this Site]
An American social Darwinist mixes on the family and Socialism.
-
2ND Robert M. Young: The Impact of Darwin on Conventional
Thought [At Human Nature]
- Mathematics
- Physics: The End of the Classical Synthesis
- Chemistry
- Astronomy
- A.S. Eddington (1882-1944): Stars and Atoms,
1926 in chapter files, full text, [At Bibliomania]
- Percival Lowell (1855-1916): Mars, 1895, in
chapter files, full text, [At Bibliomania]
- Psychology: The Obscurity of the Mind
- Philosophical Reflections: The End of Reason?
- Science and War Technology
- The Haber Process and Gas Warfare
- Captain Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen [The Red Baron] (1892-1918): Air Warfare [At this
Site]
- Scientists Reflections on Science and Meaning
Science, Technology and the
Transformation in the Means of Production
- Biology: The DNA Revolution
- Physics
- Space Exploration
- Computers
- Knowledge Based Production
- Mass Education
- Tables showing shift in proportions of economic activity [Agriculture, Manufacture,
Service]
- The Internet
- The World Environment: Cornucopeian Plenty or a Crisis Situation
- The Club of Rome
-
Kirkpatrick Sale: Lessons
from the Luddites: Setting Limits On Technology, The Nation, June 5, 1995 [At
Calgary]
-
Julian Simon: Address [At
Internet Archive, from OpusDei]
Comments by a leading "cornucopeian" who claims that there is no need to worry
about population growth, global warming, etc.
Moral Issues and Modern Science
Use of Atomic Bomb
Genetics and Human Society
Further
Resources in the History of Science
- Web Guides
- Source Materials
- Other
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 12 March 2023 [CV]
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