The world as we know it : From natural philosophy to modern science / Peter Dear.

Introduction: Natural philosophy and the sciences
Divine order: Isaac Newton and physico-theology
Celestial order and universal gravity
Mixed mathematics and probability
Inventories of electricity
Organization: Living things
Cleaning up chemistry: The classification of matter
Laplace, revolutionary order, and the invention of mathematical physics
Entr'acte: Institutions and pedagogy
Classification and extinction: Cuvier and natural history in the early nineteenth century
Darwin's taxonomy: Geology and the organization of life
Evolution and scientific naturalism
Thermodynamics and modern physics
Chance and determinism: New models of science
Electromagnetism, action at a distance, and aether
The chemical use of atoms
Laboratories of the heavens: Physics in the observatory
New modes of natural philosophy
Conclusion: The world we have gained...and lost.