COVER PAGE -- TITLE PAGE -- COPYRIGHT PAGE -- DEDICATION -- PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES 1 AND 2 -- 1: Preliminaries -- 1.1 Newtons's laws and their conceptual framework -- 1.2 Invariance properties of Newtonian dynamics -- 1.3 Why it took so long to find the laws of motion -- 1.4 Why the first breakthrough occurred in astronomy -- 1.5 General comments on the absolute/relative debate -- 1.6 Was dynamics discovered or invented? -- 2: Aristotle: first airing of the absolute/relative problem -- 2.1 Brief review of the period up to Aristotle -- 2.2 Aristotle: the man and his vision -- 2.3 Pre-Aristotelian geometrism -- 2.4 Aristotle's natural motions -- 2.5 The corruptible and the quintessential -- 2.6 The concept of place and the self-contained universe -- 2.7 Time in Aristotelian physics -- 3: Hellenistic astronomy: the foundations are laid -- 3.1 Historical: the Hellenistic period -- 3.2 Purely geometrical achievements and the development of trigonometry -- 3.3 Astronomical frames of reference -- 3.4 Manifestations of the law of inertia in the heavens -- 3.5 The 'flaw' from which dynamics developed -- 3.6 Kepler's laws of planetary motions -- 3.7 The zero-eccentricity and small-eccentricity forms of Kepler's laws -- 3.8 Hipparchus's theory of the apparent solar motion -- 3.9 The epicycle-deferent theory -- 3.10 First application of the epicycle-deferent theory: alternative form of Hipparchus's theory -- 3.11 Second application of the epicycle-deferent theory: the motion of the outer planets -- 3.12 Epicycle-deferent theory for the inner planets -- 3.13 The theory of the moon -- 3.14 Ptolemy and the small-eccentricity planetary system -- 3.15 Time in Ptolemaic astronomy -- 3.16 The achievement of Ptolemy and Hellenistic astronomy.

4: The Middle Ages: first stirrings of the scientific revolution -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Kinematics -- 4.3 Dynamics -- 4.4 Cosmology and early ideas about relativity -- 5: Copernicus: the flimsy arch -- 5.1 How Copernicus came to make his discovery -- 5.2 What Copernicus did: first approximation -- 5.3 Kinematic relativity in De Revolutionibus -- 5.4 Preliminary evaluation of the significance of Copernicus's discovery -- 5.5 What Copernicus did: second approximation -- 5.6 Copernicus's concept of place and the ultimate frame of reference -- 5.7 Copernicus's concept of motion -- 5.8 The significance of the Copernican revolution: second evaluation -- 6: Kepler: the dominion of the sun -- 6.1 Brahe and Kepler -- 6.2 The dethronement of the usurper -- 6.3 The Zeroth Law, the vicarious hypothesis and the demise of the old order -- 6.4 The halving of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit -- 6.5 The First and Second Laws -- 6.6 Kepler's physics and his Third Law -- 6.7 Kepler's anticipation of Mach's Principle -- 6.8 A last look at the astronomy and evaluation of Brahe and Kepler's achievement -- 7: Galileo: the geometrization of motion -- 7.1 Brief scientific biography and general comments -- 7.2 Galileo's cosmology, overall concepts of motion, and the influence of Copernicus -- 7.3 The primordial motions: circular inertia and free fall -- 7.4 Compound motions. Parabolic motions of projectiles -- 7.5 Rotation of the earth, different forms of the law of inertia and Galilean invariance -- 7.6 Galileo and absolute motion -- 7.7 At the threshold of dynamics -- 8: Descartes and the new world -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 The new world -- 8.3 The Cartesian concept of substance and the divide between materialism and idealism -- 8.4 The stone that put the stars to flight -- 8.5 The discovery of inertial motion: Descartes and Galileo compared.

8.6 The intervention of the Inquisition -- 8.7 Descartes' early conception of motion -- 8.8 Descartes' revised concept of motion -- 9: Huygens: relativity and centrifugal force -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.2 Collisions and relativity: general comments -- 9.3 Descartes' theory of collisions -- 9.4 Huygens' theory of collisions -- 9.5 Collisions in the centre-of-mass frame -- 9.6 The enigma of relativity -- 9.7 Centrifugal force: the work done prior to Huygens -- 9.8 Huygens' treatment of centrifugal force -- 9.9 Why Huygens failed to win the greatest prize -- 10: Newton I: the discovery of dynamics -- 10.1 Introduction -- 10.2 A comment on the significance of Newton's early work -- 10.3 Three types of force -- 10.4 Collisions -- 10.5 Centrifugal force: the paradigm of a continuously acting force -- 10.6 Newton's early applications of the formula for centrifugal force -- 10.7 The development of Newtonian dynamics -- 10.8 The Hooke-Newton correspondence of 1679 -- 10.9 The area law, Newton's treatment of time, and the solution to the Kepler problem -- 10.10 The genesis of the Principia: Ulysses draws forth Achilles -- 10.11 The Principia: its structure, fundamental concepts and most important results -- 11: Newton II: absolute or relative motion? -- 11.1 General introduction: the period up to Newton -- 11.2 Newton: general comments -- 11.3 Newton's early discussion of motion and De gravitatione -- 11.4 De gravitatione: Newton's discussion of space and body -- 11.5 The Scholium on absolute space, time, and motion -- 11.6 Comments on the Scholium -- 11.7 The absolute/relative problem in the remainder of the Principia -- 12: Post-Newtonian conceptual clarification of Newtonian dynamics -- 12.1 Introduction -- 12.2 Neumann and Body Alpha -- 12.3 Lange and the concept of inertial systems.

12.4 Determination of the earth's polar motion from satellite observations -- 12.5 Back to the Scholium -- 12.6 Huygens and absolute motion -- 12.7 Mach's operational definition of dynamical mass -- 12.8 Synoptic overview of the discovery of dynamics -- ABBREVIATIONS FOR WORKS QUOTED FREQUENTLY IN THE REFERENCES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX.