Mechanism: A Visual, Lexical, and Conceptual History

The mechanical philosophy first emerged as a leading player on the intellectual scene in the early modern period-seeking to explain all natural phenomena through the physics of matter and motion-and the term mechanism was coined. Over time, natural phenomena came to be understood through machine analogies and explanations and the very word mechanism, a suggestive and ambiguous expression, took on a host of different meanings. Emphasizing the important role of key ancient and early modern pr...