Classic Books of Science? 451
half_cocked_jack writes "What are the classic books of science from throughout history? I'm currently reading On the Origin of Species on my Kindle 2, and it's sparked an interest in digging up some of the classic books of science. I'm looking for books from the ancient and medieval worlds and books from the golden ages of scientific discovery. Books like: Galileo's The Starry Messenger; Newton's Principia; Copernicus's On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres; and Faraday's The Chemical History of a Candle. I know that I can likely find these books in a format I can use on my Kindle (found a few on Gutenberg already), but what I need is a checklist of these books to guide my reading. Suggestions?"
One Resource (Score:4, Informative)
- The Book Page - [att.net] provides free on-line classic and not-so-well known books, articles and more. Antiquarian science texts and articles - complete with original wood-cuts and copper-plate Figures read "cover to cover", or use your Browsers search function to find and read specific sections. Choose from HTML, or pdf (eBook) or MS Reader format.
Not a list like you are looking for, but may help in tracking down things you would be interested in reading.
Hawking's Compilation (Score:5, Informative)
I think I got the hardcover for ~$8 at a used bookstore. Amazon seems to indicate it's not available on the kindle but here's what's in it:
1. Nicolaus Copernicus "On the Revolutions of [the] Heavenly Spheres" (1543)
2. Galileo Galilei "Dialogues [or Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations] Concerning Two [New] Sciences" (1638)
3. Johannes Kepler Book Five of "Harmonies of the World" (1618)
4. Sir Isaac Newton "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (1687)
5. Albert Einstein "The Principles of Relativity: A Collection of Original Papers on the Special Theory of Relativity" (1922)
Two more (Score:3, Informative)
St john's College New Mexico (Score:5, Informative)
St. Johns teaches from the "great books". e.g. learn physics from Newton, etc...
just nab their sylabus and you have not only what you want but also what you need, a list the great purged of historical anachronisms and ones that are poor for teaching. (e.g. you probably don't want to learn medicine from a list of bodily humors)
Well, a modern classic (Score:5, Informative)
Einstein's relativity paper is free:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5001 [gutenberg.org]
Feynman (Score:4, Informative)
Although it's obviously much newer than all the books you listed, and is still under copyright.
Physics (Score:5, Informative)
Einstein, The principles of relativity.
Very readable papers on special relativity, essentially the same way it's taught now in a modern physics class (at least mine was).
Feynman, QED
Smart arse replaces great big pile of maths with pretty pictures with arrows in. Excellent.
Copernicus, On the revolutions of Heavenly Spheres,
Won't tell you very much, but worth it for the sheer horror of deriving the motions of the planets as viewed from Earth without using fractions.
Feynman, Lectures
The best presentation of a decent physics course there is. May only be comprehensible to people who already have a physics degree, I never tried reading it until I already had most of one at which point I was entranced.
The Best American Science Writing (Score:4, Informative)
I love them because of the variety and it usually gives you a good idea of the science without boring you with mundane details or being too pedantic.
Some English Links (Score:5, Informative)
2. Galileo Galilei "Dialogues [or Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations] Concerning Two [New] Sciences [virginia.edu]" (1638)
3. Johannes Kepler Book Five of "Harmonies of the World [sacred-texts.com]" (1618)
4. Sir Isaac Newton "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [marx.org]" (1687)
5. Albert Einstein "The Principles of Relativity: A Collection of Original Papers on the Special Theory of Relativity [gutenberg.org]" (1922)
I am not certain how easy it is to "capture" HTML to read on the Kindle later but here are some decent translations in English if you want them.
Re:One Resource (Score:5, Informative)
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth 1000 years before that. "Recent scholarship finds that since about the 3rd century BC, virtually no educated person in Western civilization has believed in a flat Earth." link. [wikipedia.org]
Godel, Escher, Bach (Score:1, Informative)
Is not ancient, but I think a definite classic that will probably stand the test of time.
another 20th cenury classic (Score:2, Informative)
It's a great example of the power of "back of the envelope" estimations, and a very interesting read.
Ooh! ooh! (Score:3, Informative)
I suggest the New Organon by Francis Bacon. This edition [amazon.com] seems to be available for the Kindle.
Or how about even Aristotle's Physics? That's a nice book to read if you've never read any Aristotle or even any philosophy before. Bacon in the New Organon was trying to advocate a new method of science against the Aristotelian tradition.
And it probably cannot be called a classic, but Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions would probably be interesting to you. And as a foil to Kuhn's work, Popper's Conjectures and Refutations.
Re:Physics (Score:4, Informative)
QED is fucking awesome. Feynman is about the most readable person you'll find on any of these lists (Darwin is dry as dust...100 pages of morphological bone changes in pigeons and you'll gnaw off your own limbs).
I have only an advanced laymans understanding of physics (4 classes at the undergrad level) and his explanations were concise, clear, and very easy to follow.
Paradigm Shift (Score:2, Informative)
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn
Coined the phrase "paradigm shift" and thoroughly smashed the romanticized view of science as linearly progressive.
American Scientist top 100 of 20th century (Score:3, Informative)
A great list of great books:
http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/100-or-so-books-that-shaped-a-century-of-science [americanscientist.org]
Re:St john's College New Mexico (Score:5, Informative)
There's always the classic list of classics (lol), the Great Books of the Western World list by Adler [interleaves.org]
That site has tons of other book lists, too.
Anyway, Adler's list is pretty much the best single answer to this question. I'd add Asimov's many, many essays on science (just start looking for them at used book stores, you'll have a dozen volumes before you know it) and Stephen J. Gould's essay collections.
Re:One Resource (Score:5, Informative)
Re:One Resource (Score:5, Informative)
Check these and a whole lot of other Arab scientist treaties. They are truly ahead of their time (as kept by western civilization of science advcance, and pearls of an age where the Muslins were the scientific lead.
Ibn al-Haytham [wikipedia.org]'s - Book of Optics [wikipedia.org]
Muhammad ibn Musa Khwarizmi [wikipedia.org] - The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing [wikipedia.org]
Disclamer: I'm not Muslim but I do think we need to give due credit where credit is due
The Discoverers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:One Resource (Score:4, Informative)
Anyway, a few more Arabic classics off the top of my head:
- Pretty much anything written by Ibn Sina [wikipedia.org]. (The Canon of Medicine is a pretty good one)
- Ibn AlNafis's [wikipedia.org] Commentary on the Anatomy in Ibn Sina's Canon [wikipedia.org] (where he described the circulatory system)
- As parent mentioned, the original book on algebra [wikipedia.org], by AlKhwarizmi. The word "algorithm" is named after him, while "algebra" was named after his book. "Jabr" in Arabic means completion.
- Omar Khayyam's many treatises on Maths and Astronomy.
There's much more on Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Philosophy of Science and the Experimental Method, etc.
Re:One Resource (Score:2, Informative)
Re:One Resource (Score:3, Informative)
Beat me to it, dammit!
It was obvious to any sea-farers that the earth was round - boats disappeared over the horizon, which could only be explained by either a curved surface, or them falling over the edge. Since most of them came back, the "curved earth theory" was never seriously questioned.
So, how long have people been using boats? A loooong time.
Q:Name Christopher Columbus' 4 ships.
A:The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and the one we don't speak about because it fell over the edge.
Re:Hawking's Compilation (Score:5, Informative)
Euclid's Elements (Score:4, Informative)
For the love of God, Euclid's Elements. Available for free here:
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html [clarku.edu]
Feynman's Lectures on Physics (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Set/dp/0201021153
Re:Two more (Score:2, Informative)
Re:One Resource (Score:3, Informative)
Re:One Resource (Score:3, Informative)
actually the word derived from Al-Kawarizi "Algorism". From which we get the word algorithm, sorry to split hairs, but this is slashdot after all =)
Re:Future Classic (Score:4, Informative)
Due to your post, I went back and quickly reread about a third of the book, and I have to admit that I was wrong as far as I can tell. I can't find any bias, and the science was better than I remembered.
I did find two errors. On page 157 and onward, Bryson claims that airborne lead is forever. Actually, airborne lead has fallen dramatically in recent decades, probably by more than 90% in cities. On page 217, he repeats the claim that glass flows at room temperature.
My apologies to you and Mr. Bryson.
Started in the 1200's - 1300's (Score:3, Informative)
The Crusades along with the destruction of Baghdad, the center of worlds intellect, around 1250 started the decline. The fall of Muslim Spain in the 1400's and a rise in religious conservatism finished it off.
Many of the troubles during those years were seen as punishment from God and ever since then there has been a movement to not go down that path again.
Most of the knowledge from Spain passed to the West and kicked off the Renaissance.
I am an American Jew, and I have to point out that the Muslim world was the center for thought and knowledge for a very long time. It's not like the Middle East is filled with idiots, they still have fantastic schools and scientists along with a thriving culture. They just aren't the center of the world anymore... honestly, I don't think we are anymore, either.
Britannica - Great Books of the Western (Score:2, Informative)