**Peter Dear *is professor emeritus of history at Cornell University. His books include Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (Princeton), The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World *, and Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in...

**Peter Dear *is professor emeritus of history at Cornell University. His books include Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (Princeton), The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World *, and Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution.