An Historical View Of The Progress Of The Physical And Mathematical Sciences

Author : James David Forbes
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781334255366
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (553 download)

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Download or read book DISSERTATION 6TH written by James David Forbes and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-11-12 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Dissertation Sixth: Exhibiting a General View of the Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science, Principally From 1775 to 1850 The object. Of this Dissertation has little in com men with an attempt formally to subdivide human knowledge into compartments, and to assign their boundaries with metaphysical exactness. It is chie y in their practical bearing on one another that they must be considered. If one science, like Mathe maties, furnish the only sure step towards the un derstanding or the enlargement of another, as Astro homy or Optics, a practical link is constructed be tween them, which renders the progress of the one not independent of the progress of the other. The intimate and reciprocal connection thus subsisting between Mathematics and Physics is to be found in almost an equal degree between Pure Physics and the Mechanical Arts, of which we take Civil Engineer ing to represent the department most cognate to that of Natural Philosophy, of which this Disserta tion more especially treats. The history of the last seventy or eighty years enforces this conclusion. The boundaries of Science and Art are as undefinable as those of fact and theory, or those which separate the kingdoms of nature from one another. There are arts which can hardly be called scientific, and there are others which have contributed more to the original stock of know ledge than they ever drew from it. These last are like the shoots of those tropical plants which at first are mere buds upon the trunk, and are nourished solely by its juices, but which, when they reach the ground, plant themselves there, and become not only the preps and stays of the parent stem, but supply it from an ever-increasing area with the sap which they originally borrowed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."