History of the Inductive Sciences: From the Earliest to the Present Times

William Whewell

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511734359

A central figure in Victorian science, William Whewell (1794–1866) held professorships in Mineralogy and Moral Philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming Master of the college in 1841. His mathematical textbooks, such as A Treatise on Dynamics (1823), were instrumental in bringing French analytical methods into British science. This three-volume history, first published in 1837, is one of Whewell's most famous works. Taking the 'acute, but fruitless, essays of Greek philosophy' as a starting point, it provides a history of the physical sciences that culminates with the mechanics, astronomy, and chemistry of 'modern times'. Volume 3 first covers the mechanico-chemical sciences, emphasizing the convergence of mechanical and chemical theories in discoveries pertaining to electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics. A section on chemistry surveys Becher and Stahl's phlogiston theory, Lavoisier's theory of oxygen, and Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction. The volume also covers mineralogy, botany, zoology, and anatomy.

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History of the Inductive Sciences

From the Earliest to the Present Times

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Contents

CHAPTER VIII - THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL CAUSES IN PHYSIOLOGY
pp 456-478

BOOK XVIII - HISTORY OF GEOLOGY
pp 479-480

Introduction
pp 481-489

CHAPTER I - PRELUDE TO SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY
pp 490-499

CHAPTER II - FORMATION OF SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY
pp 500-518

CHAPTER III - SEQUEL TO THE FORMATION OF SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY
pp 519-538

CHAPTER IV - ATTEMPTS TO DISCOVER GENERAL LAWS IN GEOLOGY
pp 539-545

CHAPTER V - INORGANIC GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS
pp 546-568

CHAPTER VI - PROGRESS OF THE GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZED BEINGS
pp 569-593

CHAPTER VII - PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL GEOLOGY
pp 594-605

CHAPTER VIII - THE TWO ANTAGONIST DOCTRINES OF GEOLOGY
pp 606-624

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From the Earliest to the Present Times

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