Table of Contents

The Introduction, in which the Author offers two tales of the Scientific Revolution -- Science in the Reign of Louis XIII -- Pawning off the New Science: Theophraste Renaudot and the Conferences of the Bureau d'adresse -- Of Black Sheep, False Suns, and Systematic Thought: Rene Descartes and His World -- Science in the Reign of Louis XIV -- A Science for a Polite Society: the Crown as the second most Philosophical Hat in Paris -- A Pretty Novel of Physics, in which Cogito, ergo sum meets l'Etat, c'est moi -- Science in the Reign of Louis XV -- The Demonstration of Enlightenment -- The Discovery of the Newtonian World; or, Flattening the Poles if not the Cartesians -- Electricity in the Eighteenth Century; or, The Philosophy of Shocks and Sparks -- The Conclusion, in which the Author Draws a Moral

About the Author

Geoffrey V. Sutton teaches at Macalester College.