Abstract
The contributions of Galileo and Newton to the development of mechanics are known by those with even passing familiarity with physics. The present book, subtitled "Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World," is devoted to two other thinkers of the seventeenth century who were precursors of classical mechanics. Margaret Osler, of the University of Calgary, deals with their differing views on matter and scientific method. She especially emphasizes the ways in which they translated important ideas of Christian theology into their ideas about the nature of matter and about the roles of theory and observation in understanding the world.