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The great textbooks of exact natural sciences in the 17th and 18th century – also lingual and didactic masterworks. (Die großen Lehrbücher der exakten Naturwissenschaften im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert – auch sprachliche und didaktische Meisterwerke.) (German) Zbl 0637.01003

This paper gives a short survey about the development of the natural sciences in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is shown especially the importance of the great textbooks of the 18th century for progress and expansion of natural sciences. The article begins with a brief consideration of the first great discoveries in the field of exact natural sciences, all belonging, since its beginning, to the 17th century. The works and significance of scientists like Kepler, Galilei and Descartes are summarily described, and viewed as the great first successors of Copernicus. The exposition continues with the giants Newton and Leibniz, whose writings nevertheless were not already adequate for serving as didactic textbooks. In this connection, an enormous work was still to do: in the 18th century, namely, by Christian Wolff and Kant – who formulated the maxims of the so called “Aufklärung” in a very precise fashion - as well as by many others, taken into consideration by the author. A special interest is devoted to the names of Euler and Lagrange, whose textbooks were and still are remarkable as representing the great treatises of the 18th century, masterworks both with respect to the didactic aspects, as to the lingual one.

MSC:

01A45 History of mathematics in the 17th century
01A50 History of mathematics in the 18th century
01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
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