Science Deified & Science Defied: The Historical Significance of Science in Western Culture

Richard Olson's magisterial two-volume work, "Science Deified and Science Defied" asks how, why, to what extent, and with what consequences scientific ideas have influenced Western culture. In Volume 2, Olson turns to Cartesianism and the extension of mathematical and mechanical philosophies that branched into every aspect of seventeenth-century thought.