A Compendious System Of Natural Philosophy Volume 1 Preface

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Medical theory and practice of the 1700s developed rapidly, as is evidenced by the extensive collection, which includes descriptions of diseases, their conditions, and treatments. Books on science and technology, agriculture, military technology, natural philosophy, even cookbooks, are all contained here. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ National Library of Scotland T220962 The general title page to volume 2 is dated 1753. The two volumes, each with a general title page, contain four main parts, each with separate title page, pagination and register; the continuations to parts II, III and IV also have separate title pages. The parts and continuations were issued separately in various editions some of which pre- and post-date the dates on the general title pages. Editions and dates of individual parts may vary from copy to copy. The preface, contents, appendix to part I and index were issued together with a 1743 title page. The general title page dated 1744 is included on leaf e4. These constituent parts to be bound in at the appropriate places in the two volume work. Contents: [Vol. 1]. Preface -- Contents -- Part I -- Appendix to part I -- Part II -- Part II continued -- Part III. Vol. 2. Part III continued -- Part IV -- Part IV continued -- Index. Index includes 'material errata' for part II, 2nd ed., part III, 1st ed. part III, 2nd ed., part IV, 1st ed. and Appendix to part I. London: printed for Sam. Harding, 1744-1753. 2v.; 8°

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The complete title of one of the most famous works ever written, Isaac Newton's Principia, was actually Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy". Sadly, many contemporary philosophers would be hard-pressed to say just what natural philosophy (or philosophy of nature) is all about. Without question, the philosophy of nature has received relatively less attention than ethics and metaphysics for some time. In "Nature, the Soul, and God," Jean W. Rioux has brought together a number of important readings in natural philosophy, from the Pre-Socratic philosophers and Aristotle to the 19th-century entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. Collectively, they present three ways in which one might conceive of the natural world in a pre-scientific reflection upon the way things are: either the classical materialism of Empedocles, Democritus, and Epicurus, the formalism of Plato, or the hylomorphic view espoused and defended by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. In the sections following the consideration of nature are selections from these representative views concerning the immortality of the soul and the existence of God. Through the medium of philosophers both ancient and modern, Rioux makes the point that one's philosophical account of the natural world will have an impact upon how one regards human nature, as well as divinity itself. It all begins with nature.