From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe - Softcover

Koyr, Prof Alexandre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801803470 ISBN 13: 9780801803475

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968

Synopsis

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a radical change occurred in the patterns and the framework of European thought. In the wake of discoveries through the telescope and Copernican theory, the notion of an ordered cosmos of "fixed stars" gave way to that of a universe infinite in both time and space -- with significant and far-reaching consequences for human thought. Alexandre Koyré interprets this revolution in terms of the change that occurred in our conception of the universe and our place in it and shows the primacy of this change in the development of the modern world.

About this title

Review:

"An important contribution to the problem of the transition from the world view characteristic of the medieval centuries to that which rapidly gained acceptance after the seventeenth century."

(Philosophical Quarterly)

"Koyré has provided the material and has illuminated it with uniformly perceptive and occasionally brilliant commentary... An important contribution to the study of 17th-century thought."

(Thomas S. Kuhn Science)

"A model of scholarliness without pedantry, of clarity without oversimplification."

(Arthur Koestler Encounter)

"Surely a work that will be welcomed alike by the scientist, philosopher, and historian of ideas."

(Philosophy and Phenomenological Research)

About the Author:

Alexandre Koyré was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. His books include Discovering Plato and Newtonian Studies.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1968
• ISBN 10: 0801803470
• ISBN 13: 9780801803475
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328