ISBN:
9789400747463
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (XIX, 631 p. 73 illus, digital)
Series Statement:
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 27
Series Statement:
SpringerLink
Series Statement:
Bücher
Parallel Title:
Buchausg. u.d.T.
Keywords:
Philosophy (General)
;
Philosophy of nature
;
Science Philosophy
;
Philosophy
;
Philosophy (General)
;
Philosophy of nature
;
Science Philosophy
Abstract:
This book reconstructs key aspects of the early career of Descartes from 1618 to 1633; that is, up through the point of his composing his first system of natural philosophy, Le Monde, in 1629-33. It focuses upon the overlapping and intertwined development of Descartes’ projects in physico-mathematics, analytical mathematics, universal method, and, finally, systematic corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy. The concern is not simply with the conceptual and technical aspects of these projects; but, with Descartes’ agendas within them and his construction and presentation of his intellectual identity in relation to them. Descartes’ technical projects, agendas and senses of identity shifted over time, entangled and displayed great successes and deep failures, as he morphed from a mathematically competent, Jesuit trained graduate in neo-Scholastic Aristotelianism to aspiring prophet of a systematised corpuscular-mechanism, passing through stages of being a committed physico-mathematicus, advocate of a putative ‘universal mathematics’, and projector of a grand methodological dream. In all three dimensions-projects, agendas and identity concerns-the young Descartes struggled and contended, with himself and with real or virtual peers and competitors, hence the title ‘Descartes-Agonistes’.
Description / Table of Contents:
Descartes-Agonistes; Preface; Contents; Chapter 1: Introduction: Problems of Descartes and the Scientific Revolution; 1.1 Prologue: The 'Young' and the 'Mature' Descartes, Natural Philosopher; 1.2 Descartes and the Historians of Science; 1.3 Key Pitfalls (and Opportunities) Facing Descartes' Biographers (Even Authors of Quite Truncated Biographies); 1.3.1 The Problem of Method and Its Texts: Regulae and Discours; 1.3.2 The Problem of Descartes the Natural Philosopher, and of Natural Philosophy as a Wide and Dynamic Field of Discourse and Contention
Description / Table of Contents:
1.3.3 Scientific Biography and the Historiography of Science1.4 Overview of the Argument; References; Works of Descartes and Their Abbreviations; Other; Chapter 2: Conceptual and Historiographical Foundations-Natural Philosophy, Mixed Mathematics, Physico-mathematics, Method; 2.1 Jesuit neo-Scholasticism for the noblesse de robe; 2.2 In Search of Proper Categories and Angle of Attack; 2.3 Constructing the Category of Natural Philosophy, Part 1-Natural Philosophizing as Culture and Process; 2.4 Some Heuristic Help: Modeling Modern Sciences as Unique, Agonal Traditions in Process
Description / Table of Contents:
2.5 Constructing the Category of Natural Philosophy, Part 2: The Dynamics and Rules of Contestation of Natural Philosophizing2.5.1 Articulation on Subordinate Disciplines: Grammar and Specific Utterance; 2.5.2 Find or Steal Discoveries, Novelties or Facts, Including Experimental Ones; 2.5.3 Bend or Brake Aristotle's Rules About Mathematics and Natural Philosophy: The Gambit of 'Physico-Mathematics'; 2.5.4 "Hot Spots" of Articulation Contest: Additional Causes and Effects of Heightened Turbulence in the Field of Natural Philosophizing
Description / Table of Contents:
2.5.5 Modeling System Construction and Contestation - The 'Core', 'Vertical' and 'Horizontal' Dimensions of a Natural Philosophical System2.5.6 The Mechanics of Responding to 'Outside' Challenges and Opportunities; 2.6 The Special Status of the Problem of Method; 2.7 Phases and Stages in the 'Scientific Revolution' Seen as an Unfolding Process in the Field of Natural Philosophizing, with Its Attendant Articulations to Other Domains; 2.8 Looking Forward-What Kind of Natural Philosopher/Physico-Mathematician Was René Descartes?; References; Works of Descartes and Their Abbreviations; Other
Description / Table of Contents:
Chapter 3: 'Recalled to Study'-Descartes, Physico-Mathematicus3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Beeckman: Mentor and Colleague in Physico-Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; 3.2.1 Corpuscular-Mechanical Natural Philosophy and the Values of the Practical Arts; 3.2.2 Beeckman's Causal Register, Principles of Mechanics and Version of Physico-Mathematics; 3.3 Exemplary Physico-Mathematics: The Hydrostatics Manuscript of 1619; 3.3.1 Stevin, Archimedes and the Hydrostatic Paradox; 3.3.2 The Hydrostatics Manuscript [1] The Micro-Corpuscular Reduction; 3.3.3 The Hydrostatics Manuscript [2] The Force of Motion
Description / Table of Contents:
3.4 What's the Agenda: Descartes' Radical Form of Physico-Mathematics
Description / Table of Contents:
Introduction: Problems of Descartes and the Scientific Revolution -- Conceptual and Historiographical Foundations.- Recalled to Study: Descartes Physico-Mathematicus Descartes Opticien: The Optical Triumph of the 1620s -- nalytical Mathematics, Universal Mathematics and Method: Descartes’ Identity and Agenda Entering the 1620s.- Method and the Problem of the Historical Descartes.- Universal Mathematics Interruptus: The Program of the later Regulae and its Collapse 1626-28 -- Reinventing the Agenda and Identity: Descartes, Physico-mathematical Philosopher of Nature 1629-33.- Reading Le Monde as Pedagogy and Fable -- Waterworld: Descartes’ Vortical Celestial Mechanics and Cosmological Optics in Le Monde. - Le Monde as a System of Natural Philosophy -- Cosmography, Realist Copernicanism and Systematising Strategy in the Principia Philosophiae -- Conclusion: The Young and the Mature Descartes Agonistes -- Appendix 1 Descartes, Mydorge and Beeckman: The Evolution of Cartesian Lens Theory 1627-1637.- Appendix 2 Decoding Descartes’ Vortex Celestial Mechanics in the Text of Le Monde.
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
DOI:
10.1007/978-94-007-4746-3
URL:
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