The World as We Know It: From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science -- Peter Dear, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Revolutionizing the Sciences, a monumental historical account of how we came to see the world through the lens of science

Science is the basis of our assumptions about ourselves and our world, from ideas about our evolutionary past to our conceptions of the vast expanses of space and the smallest particles of matter. In this panoramic book, acclaimed historian of science Peter Dear uncovers the roots of such beliefs, revealing how they constitute a natural philosophy that has been developed and refined over the course of centuries--and how the world as we have come to know it was by no means inevitable.

In a sweeping, multifaceted narrative, Dear describes some of the most breathtaking accomplishments in the advance of human knowledge, such as Isaac Newton's laws of motion and gravitation, Carl Linnaeus's taxonomy, Antoine Lavoisier's new chemistry, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and Albert Einstein's theories of relativity. Challenging the notion that science is only about "making discoveries," he shows how our world has been formed by people, institutions, and cultural assumptions, giving rise to disciplines ranging from biology and astrophysics to electromagnetism and the social sciences.

Taking readers from the early eighteenth century to today, The World as We Know It reveals how our ideas about our place in the universe were bequeathed to us by individuals, cultures, and a curiosity that knows no bounds.

Author: Peter Dear
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 10/21/2025
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
ISBN: 9780691235844

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/11/2025

About the Author
Peter Dear is professor emeritus of history at Cornell University. His books include Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (Princeton), The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World, and Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution.