One Hundred Years of Pressure

Alan F. Chalmers is the author of What is this thing called science? (1976, 1982, 1999, 2013) which has been translated into eighteen languages and has been a basic text in philosophy of science for four decades. He is  also the Author of Science and its Fabrication (1990) , The Scientist’s atom and the philosopher’s stone (2009) and over fifty journal articles on the history and philosophy of the physical sciences. His  interests are in the history and philosophy of the physical sciences.Having acquired a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of London in 1971 he moved to the University of Sydney where he remained employed until my ‘retirement’ in 2000. In the late 1980s Alan set up the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science that has flourished and is flourishing.His retirement has given him more time to devote to his research. He has been able to take advantage of Visiting Fellowships at the Dibner Institute for History of Science and Technology, The Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Durham. On three separate occasions he has been a Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and is two weeks into the third of these as this is written.

• Chapter 1. The theoretical challenge posed for seventeenth century mechanics by fluids.- Chapter 2. The background to Simon Stevin’s hydrostatics.- Chapter 3. Moving beyond Archimedes: The hydrostatics of Simon Stevin.- Chapter 4. Galileo, floating bodies and the balance.- Chapter 5. Descartes’ engagement with hydrostatics.- Chapter 6. Pascal on the equilibrium of liquids.- Chapter 7. Experimenting with, and theorizing about, air.- Chapter 8. Boyle and the concept of pressure.- Chapter 9. Newton’s hydrostatics: Pressure in a continuum, following Boyle, rather than corpuscle pressing on corpuscle, following Descartes.- Chapter 10. Reflections on the role of theory and experiment in the emergence of hydrostatics.- Chapter 11. Reflections on the significance of the history of hydrostatics: What was revolutionary about the scientific revolution?

“One hundred years of pressure offers a rich and searching analysis of the conceptual development of what has become known as the science of hydrostatics. … Chalmers’s account is impeccable; the logic of his argument is consistent and convincing. Confining the account to a ‘conceptual self-realization of hydrostatics’ allows for a clear and precise analysis.” (Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis, Metascience, Vol. 28, 2019)“Chalmers (retired, Univ. of Sydney, Australia) delves into the understanding of pressure that has evolved over the centuries … . The main focus is how the knowledge of pressure within a stationary liquid … developed in the context of historical changes. Chalmers explores the mechanistic philosophy that led to the understanding of the concept, with major shifts after the 17th century. … Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals.” (N. Sadanand, Choice, Vol. 55 (4), December, 2017)“This book should be available in the library of institutions that have researchers in either of these fields. Likewise, physicists from the field of hydrostatics will probably enjoy reading Chalmers’ book and benefit from his analysis.” (Peter Heering, Science and Education, Vol. 27, 2018)