Outline of dissertation ideas

As a result of the last week of study, I have a rough outline of a possible dissertation. I know it is much too soon to be fixed on one idea, but this is in an area that I am so interested in that I can't see that I would want to pick another topic.

Basically I am thinking of basing my dissertation on the idea of updating, to some degree, E.A.Burtt's book from 1932, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science. This was one of the books I most enjoyed 25 years ago and I feel that the thesis from this book is well worth developing further in the light of recent History of Science scholarship - especially via journals such as the Journal for the History of Astronomy (of which they have a full set at the Radcliffe Science Library within the Bodleian) My dissertation will focus on the increased knowledge of the Pythagoreans, disputes in the later Middle Ages (Buridan and Oresme) and recent views on the development of Kepler's ideas (by Voelkel and Martins, especially)

My main difficulty at the moment is the question of whether this is original enough