Re: The Philosophy and History of Science Series

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

I am taking the opportunity to repeat this note on PHYS-L list
dedicated to physics teaching.


At 16:25 8/3/99 BST, Jon Agar wrote:
> ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>
> Date sent:      Tue, 3 Aug 1999 15:52:27 +0100
> Send reply to:  History of Computing Issues <SHOTHC-L@SIVM.SI.EDU>
> From:           Kirsten Robertson <krobertson@THOEMMES.COM>
> Subject:        The Philosophy and History of Science Series
> To:             SHOTHC-L@SIVM.SI.EDU
>
> We are a small publisher in Bristol, UK, specialising in providing primary
> source material in the history of ideas for the academic communities.
>
> We are looking for ideas and proposals for our new series: _The Philosophy
> and History of Science_.  This series will reprint classic works within the
> philosophy and history of science.
>
> _Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics_ will be the first collection
> in the series....
> We will also be reprinting _The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements_
> translated by Sir Thomas Little Heath (1908).

> - Are there any other major figures within the philosophy and history of
> science whose major works would benefit from a reprint collection?
...
> - We recently published with Routledge a twelve-volume set entitled Works in
> the Philosophy of Science 1830-1914, which includes classic works such as
> _Matter and Motion_ by James Clerk Maxwell and _Principles of Science_ by
> Stanley Jevons.  Would a similar collection containing classic works in the
> history of science be beneficial to the modern scholar?
>
> Further information about Thoemmes Press can be found on our web-site:
> http://www.thoemmes.com
> I would be pleased to send a catalogue to anyone interested.
> Thank you, and I look forward to your comments.
>
> Kirsten Robertson
> Thoemmes Press


It is not being unduly melodramatic to describe Kirsten's avowed
intention as carrying the flame of Western Science into the third
 Millennium.
    The idea, the splendid idea of recirculating into our grasp
the seminal scientific works is so important, that I am outraged
that this motivation can be diluted by repeating the publication
of works already restored to the public grasp.

    For example, the Elements in the very same translation are
already to be found in every western library, in the pages of the
splendid uniform series called "Great Books of the Western World"
Encyclopedia Britannica Press.

 By contrast, Helmholtz and Maxwell are not to be found there and
are indeed worthy of our attention.
  For me, it would do no harm to have Kirsten peruse a list of
 Nobel prize winners, as well as authors of antiquity: I look in
vain for easily accessible samples of Bacon's writing in translation.

 I desire to read Priestley describing his water barometer, before
the mob drove him out of Birmingham.
   I would not be offended to read some writings by another
resident of that town - Watt.
What has Stephenson to say on locomotives, and Brunel on iron ships?

I wish that works of the scientists were a common place at schools -
 where their texts might better serve the non-science didactic purpose
 by illustrating language use and historical context than the hum-drum
confections now in place.

In this context, I should also notice Shamos's "Great Experiments
in Physics", Dover. Here Joule, Thomson and Millikan have the
opportunity anew, to describe their lab setups.





brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK