Source Books in the History of the Sciences
Below are the in-print works in this collection. Sort by title, author, format, publication date, or price »
![]() | From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931 Gathered together here are the fundamental texts of the great classical period in modern logic. A complete translation of Gottlob Frege’s Begriffsschrift—which opened a great epoch in the history of logic by fully presenting propositional calculus and quantification theory—begins the volume, which concludes with papers by Herbrand and by Gödel. | |
![]() | A Source Book in Medieval Science This Source Book explores a millennium of European scientific thought accompanied by critical commentary and annotation; nearly half the selections appear for the first time in the vernacular. Representing “science” in the medieval sense, selections include alchemy, astrology, logic, and theology as well as mathematics, physics, and biology. | |
![]() | A Source Book in the History of Psychology This is a source book unique in its scope, clarity, and general interest. Its 116 excerpts range in time from Epicurus (ca. 300 B.C.) to the turn of the present century and sometimes, when continuity requires, a little beyond (as to K. S. Lashley, 1929). It includes excerpts from Kepler (1604) on the inverted retinal image, Descartes (1650) on the soul’s interaction with the machine of the body, Newton (1675) on the seven colors of the spectrum, Locke (1700) on association of ideas, Whytt (1751) on the spinal reflex, Weber (1834) on Weber’s law, Darwin (1859) on evolution, Sechenov (1863) on reflexology, Hughlings Jackson (1884) on nervous dissolution, William James (1890) on associationism, Thorndike, Pavlov, Wertheimer, Watson, and 70 other great figures in the history of psychology. | |
![]() | A Source Book in Greek Science Covering the general fields of mathematics, astronomy, mathematical geography, physics, chemistry and chemical technology, geology and meteorology, biology, medicine, and physiological psychology, the present collection surveys the field of Greek scientific achievement over a thousand-year period. | |
![]() | A Source Book in Classical Analysis This Source Book, a sequel to D. J. Struik’s Source Book in Mathematics, 1200–1800, draws together more than eighty selections from the writings of the most influential mathematicians of the period. Thirteen chapters, each with an introduction by the editor, highlight the major developments in mathematical thinking over the century. | |
![]() | This remarkable volume presents a panorama of geographical writings from Hesiod to Humboldt, from the beginnings of geographical thought in the Western world to the emergence of topical specialization. It includes a wealth of material from non-Western sources, particularly Moslem and Chinese, that has not been collected before. | |
![]() | This well-known and valuable work consists of selections from the writings of great physicists of the 16th–19th centuries—Galileo and Newton, Franklin and Faraday, Rowland, Hertz, the Curies—making available in English translation their most important contributions, described in their own words, together with biographical and explanatory notes. | |
![]() | Source Book in Astronomy, 1900–1950 The Source Book’s 69 contributions represent all fields of astronomy: equivalence of mass and energy (E = mc²) of the special theory of relativity; building the 200-inch Palomar telescope; the scattering of galaxies suggesting a rapidly expanding universe; stellar evolution; and the Big Bang and Steady State theories of the universe’s origin. | |
![]() | Source Book in Geology, 1900–1950 Here, find source literature for the most important contributions to the remarkable recent expansion of geological knowledge. Excerpted are 65 articles on topics including the constitution of Earth’s interior, earthquakes, radioactive timekeepers, submarine features and deep-sea cores, entrapment of petroleum, and crystal structure. | |
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![]() | A Source Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1900–1975 Here, find major astrophysics contributions through 1975, documenting changing answers to fundamental questions: origins of the solar system; why stars shine; what lies between the stars; whether the universe will expand forever. Many of the 132 selections appear for the first time in English. The editors provide substantial commentary. | |
![]() | A Source Book in Animal Biology The two main aims of this book are to increase the general availability of classical contributions to animal biology and to present the development of thought in this field in the words of those who produced it. | |
![]() | Source Book in Chemistry, 1900–1950 The Source Book serves as an introduction to present-day chemistry and can also be used as supplementary reading in general chemistry courses, since, in many instances, the papers explain the circumstances under which a particular discovery was made—information that is customarily lacking in textbooks. Although the selections are classified into the usual branches of the science, it will be apparent to the reader how the discoveries in any one branch were taken up and incorporated into others. |