Includes bibliographical references (pages 623-678) and index.

Cohen traces the nuances that differentiate both scientific revolutions and human perceptions of them, weaving threads of details from physics, mathematics, behaviorism, Freud, atomic physics and molecular biology, into the larger fabric of intellectual history. Examining the transformations in the way scientists, historians, and philosophers have conceived of scientific change from the 17th century to the present, he analyzes idea of "revolution" and explores how the term "revolution" came to stand for radical change in political and socioeconomic affairs, and science. With case histories from the revolutions associated with the names of Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, Newton, and Einstein, as well as the Industrial and political revolutions, he details the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea. ISBN 0-674-76777-2 :$25.00.

History of Science Society Pfizer Award, 1986.

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