ABSTRACT
The seventeenth century offers probably the richest and most well trodden territory in both the history of science and the history of philosophy. While the line between the two areas was far from clearly drawn in the period, it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that both were characterised by intellectual revolutions which helped shape each for at least a century and perhaps for all time. Partly because of that, generalisations from the period are almost certain to encounter important counter-instances. If we can talk of directions at all the best that we can expect to identify will be trends, and even they would require us to look beyond the seventeenth century in both directions to be sure of their validity. Within that broader brief I shall focus for fairly obvious reasons on epistemic issues and the tensions which arose between the new sciences and the new epistemologies, partly induced by the widespread return to atomistic theories of matter, through the momentous developments in mathematical astronomy and mathematical physics, to central questions about method and the limits of knowledge. From at least the mid-sixteenth century the latter included the rising influence of sceptical argument, the clashes between these new forces and the authorised teachings as required by the churches and universities, and the powerful patronage which in general those institutions enjoyed.
