Galileo and Copernican Astronomy

Brecht B. (1963). The Life of Galileo. London, Methuen

Butterfield H. (1968). Origins of Modern Science. London, G. Bell and Sons (first published 1949)

An excellent review of the period 1300–1800 written by a general historian.

de Santillana G. and Stillman Drake (1959). 'Arthur Koestler and his Sleepwalkers' Isis, 50, 3

A highly critical discussion of Koestler (op. cit.) by two of the foremost Galileo scholars. Accuses Koestler of a highly selective use of data in his unsympathetic portrayal of Galileo.

Santillana G. (1961): The Crime of Galileo. London, Mercury Books (first published in USA, 1955)

A scholarly examination of the relationship between Galileo and the Church authorities.

Galilei Galileo (1614–15). Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. In Stillman Drake op. cit.

Geymonat L. (1965). Galileo Galilei. New York, McGraw Hill

Hull L.W.H. (1959). History and Philosophy of Science. London, Longmans

An excellent simplified general survey of the history of science and of the changing nature of scientific ideas.

Kearney H. (1971). Science and Change 1500–1700. London, World University Library

An excellent introduction to the history of science in this period. Easy to read and beautifully illustrated, it is also an impressive analysis of the rise of the mechanist tradition in science.

Koestler A. (1959). The Sleepwalkers. London, Hutchinson (also Penguin Books, 1964 and 1968)

Kuhn T.S. (1957). The Copernican Revolution. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press (also in paperback: New York, Vintage Books, 1959)

Stillman Drake (1957). Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York, Doubleday

Section A Instrumentalism and reality

Duhem P. (1954). The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press (first published in France, 1906)

Galileo Galilei . The Assayer reprinted in Stillman Drake (op. cit.) See especially Galileo's distinction between subjective and objective qualities (p. 274 in Doubleday edition) and compare this with John Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities. A world in which only shape, number and motion are 'real' is the world of the mechanical paradigm.

Hull (op. cit) contains an excellent introduction to the epistemological ideas of Plato, Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

Kuhn T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, Ill., University of Chicago Press (second edition 1970)

Popkin . (1969). Philosophy Made Simple. London, W.W.H. Chapter five is a particularly clear and concise summary of epistemological problems in the historical context. Plato to Hume. Very useful background, particularly when read in conjunction with Hull, to the problems of 'reality'.

Popper K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul

Russell B. (1968). A History of Western Philosophy. London, Allen & Unwin

A useful source of information on individual philosophers such as Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

Kuhn T.S. (op. cit., as Section A)

Lakatos and Musgrave (eds.) (1970). Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. London, Cambridge University Press

A collection of essays on the Kuhn–Popper debate. Lakatos' own contribution is an interesting development of the Popperian position and can act as a useful source of insight into Popper's works at a level more advanced than that represented in the chapters of Popper (1963) recommended in this text.

Magee B. (1973). Popper. London, Fontana Modern Masters An interesting commentary on Popper's philosophy of science which demonstrates the relationship between that and his political philosophy.

Medawar P.B. (1969). Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought. London, Methuen

An interesting simple account by an eminent scientist of the problems of scientific methodology. Can be confusing if not read critically – is Medawar offering a description of scientific methodology or an epistemological appraisal? The answer often seems to be unclear even in the writer's mind. Advocates a Popperian viewpoint but does not attend to the problems raised by the Kuhnian critique.

Popper (op. cit., as Section A)

Basalla (ed.) (1968). The Rise of Modern Science. Lexington, Mass. Heath

Hessen (1931). The Social and Economical Roots of Newton's Principia. In Basalla (op. cit.)

Jevons F.R. (1973). Science Observed. London, Allen & Unwin

Merton (1938). Science Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England. In Basalla (op. cit.)

Ravetz J. (1971). Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems. Oxford, Clarendon Press (also Penguin Education, 1973) Read as a whole, the book contributes to the understanding of scientific knowledge as a socially regulated construction. Germane to present discussion of external effects is Chapter 2 which discusses the social problems of industrialized science.

Sklair L. (1973). Organised Knowledge. London, Paladin, Hart-Davis As a whole, the book falls into the same category as Ravetz (op. cit.) constituting an examination of science from a post-Kuhnian sociological/epistemological point of view. But see particularly Chapter 6 on the social functions of science.

Barnes B. (ed.) (1972). Sociology of Science. Harmondsworth, Penguin Modern Sociology Readings Part six, especially Chapter 19 for a taste of Marcuse.

Easlea B. (1973). Liberation and the Aims of Science. London, Chatto and Windus

Koestler A. (1959). op. cit. See p. 68

Koestler A. (1972). The Roots of Coincidence. London, Hutchinson

Mays W. (1973). Koestler, Makers of Modern Thought. Woking, Lutterworth Press

Roszak T. (1970). The Making of a Counterculture. London, Faber and Faber

Roszak T. (1973). Where the Wasteland Ends. London, Faber and Faber (See p. 69)