Historical Science Classics

Author: Yang Jian Dai Wusan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Classic book lists have always been abundant, and many have been published in recent years, but most are limited to the humanities and social sciences. There has been a lack of book lists on scientific classics. Recently, two young scholars of the history of science from Tsinghua University, Yang Jian and Dai Wusan, published the book "Historical Scientific Classics" with Hubei Education Press, filling this gap. The book selects and evaluates 109 scientific classics from ancient and modern China and abroad, briefly assessing their authors' lives, academic contributions, and core ideas. It includes both ancient Greek classics such as Aristotle's "On the Generation of Animals," Euclid's "Elements," and Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things," as well as modern and contemporary scientific classics like Copernicus's "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," Vesalius's "On the Fabric of the Human Body," Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," Gauss's "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae," and Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." Geographically, in addition to Europe, it covers Chinese classics such as the "Mo Jing," "Huangdi Neijing," "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art," and "Compendium of Materia Medica," as well as Islamic civilization's "Optics" by Alhazen, and scientific classics from India, Japan, and other countries. Therefore, the book provides a valuable reference for scholars and researchers in the field of science, while also offering ordinary readers a general understanding of the historical context of scientific development and an initial appreciation of the unique charm of these classics.