A System Of Mechanical Philosophy

Excerpt from A System of Mechanical Philosophy, Vol. 1 of 4 As the work could not be extended beyond {bur volumes, it was necessary to select the most important articles for publication and even when this selection was made, I could not confine them within the prescribed limits, without a pro cess of abridgment, which was both troublesome and difficult. In doing this, however, I gene rally confined myselfto the omission of those di gressiorrs of a political and religious nature, which, however appropriate they might have been at the time, were, in every respect, unsuitable to scien tific discussions; though sometimes, from a dif fusenessiof style, and a redundancy of illustration, allowable in an Encyclopmdia, I was enabled to abridge, without omitting any essential step in the investigation. The repetitions so unavoidable in articles written and published at different times. 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.

This volume argues for a new image of science that understands both natural and social phenomena to be the product of mechanisms, casting the work of science as an effort to understand those mechanisms. Glennan offers an account of the nature of mechanisms and of the models used to represent them in physical, life, and social sciences.

This work is an overview of the principles of mechanical science, covering topics such as mechanics, hydrostatics, and pneumatics. The authors guide readers through the practical application of these principles in machinery, drawing on examples from their experience as inventors and engineers. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.