Pierre-Simon Laplace was among the most influential scientists in
history. Often referred to as the lawgiver of French science, he is
known for his technical contributions to exact science, for the
philosophical point of view he developed in the presentation of his
work, and for the leading part he took in forming the modern discipline
of mathematical physics. His two most famous treatises were the
five-volume Traité de mécanique céleste (1799-1825) and Théorie
analytique des probabilités (1812). In the former he demonstrated
mathematically the stability of the solar system in service to the
universal Newtonian law of gravity. In the latter he developed
probability from a set of miscellaneous problems concerning games,
averages, mortality, and insurance risks into the branch of mathematics
that permitted the quantification of estimates of error and the drawing
of statistical inferences, wherever data warranted, in social, medical,
and juridical matters, as well as in the physical sciences.
This book traces the development of Laplace's research program and of
his participation in the Academy of Science during the last decades of
the Old Regime into the early years of the French Revolution. A
scientific biography by Charles Gillispie comprises the major portion of
the book. Robert Fox contributes an account of Laplace's attempt to form
a school of young physicists who would extend the Newtonian model from
astronomy to physics, and Ivor Grattan-Guinness summarizes the history
of the scientist's most important single mathematical contribution, the
Laplace Transform.
