Jean D'alembert-Science

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CRC Press, May 17, 1990 - Medical - 260 pages
This book examines the origins of d'Alembert's philosophical ideas, and shows how abstract concepts such as force and mass were clarified and assimilated into the structure of classical mechanics. But more than this, the book is a study of the relations between science and philosophy during the Enlightenment, as reflected in the life and work of Jean d'Alembert, one of that period's most prominent spokesmen. By showing the interactions of one "philosophe" with the scientific, social and philosophical communities of the eighteenth century, Professor Hankins reveals how Enlightenment philosophy borrowed heavily from the methods and goals of science.
 

Contents

Science and the Enlightenment I
1
The Education of a philosophe II
11
Diderot and the encyclopedic venture
66
The Great Chain
104
Science and the philosophical campaign
132
the search
151
The laws of motion and dAlemberts Principle
170
Virtual velocities and vis viva
195
The representation of physical laws
214
mechanics and philosophy
233
INDEX
253
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Page 240 - Recherches sur la précession des equinoxes et sur la nutation de l'axe de la terre, dans le système Newtonien.

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