The course will survey the critical turning points of the scientific revolution of the 17^th century in physics and astronomy.  The first part will examine two main aspects of pre-classical physics:  Aristotle’s theory of motion that guided physical thought until the 17^th century, and Ptolemy’s models of planetary motion that violated some basic requirements of Aristotle’s physics without suggesting an independent theoretical alternative.  The second part will examine aspects of the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton, in order to expose the emergence of the foundations of the so-called “classical” physics that replaced the troubled Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system.