From Summetria to Symmetry: The Making of a Revolutionary Scientific Concept

• Main Authors: Hon, Giora (Author), Goldstein, Bernard R. (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 2008.
• Series: Archimedes, New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 20
• Subjects: History.; Aesthetics.; Philosophy and science.; Architecture.; Mathematics.; Physics.; History of Science.; Philosophy of Science.; History of Mathematical Sciences.; History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics.; Architectural History and Theory.

The concept of symmetry is inherent to modern science, and its evolution has a complex history that richly exemplifies the dynamics of scientific change. This study is based on primary sources, presented in context: the authors examine closely the trajectory of the concept in the mathematical and sc...

Table of Contents:

• Tradition: Ancient Perspectives and Their SurvivalintheEarlyModernEra
• The Mathematical Path
• The Aesthetic Path
• New Aesthetic Sensibilities in Italian and French Architecture
• The Ancient Concept of Symmetry in Scientific Contexts in Early Modern Times and Its Association with Harmony
• The Path to Revolution: Symmetry as a Modern Scientific Concept
• The Treatment of Symmetry in Natural History (1738–1815)
• Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): “Revolutions” That Did Not Happen
• Legendre’s Revolutionary Definition of Symmetry as a Scientific Concept (1794)
• New Applications of Symmetry in Mathematics and Physics: 1788–1815.