Examines the body of work on the intellectual, social and cultural origins of early modern science. Cohen surveys a wide range of scholarship since the 19th century, offering new perspectives on how the Scientific Revolution changed the way we understand the natural world and our place in it.

Part 1 Defining the Nature of the Scientific Revolution: The Great Tradition - Concepts and approaches in studying the Scientific Revolution; The New Science in a Wider Setting - The cultural, social and historical context of the new science. Part 2 The Search for Causes of the Scientific Revolution: The Emergence of Early Modern Science from Previous Western Thought on Nature - Why the Scientific Revolution did not take place in Ancient Greece and how early modern science emerged from Renaissance thought; The Emergence of Early Modern Science from Events in the History of Western Europe; the Nonemergence of Early Modern Science Outside Western Europe. Part 3 Summary and Conclusions: the Scientific Revolution - 50 Years in the Life of a Concept; the Structure of the Scientific Revolution.