ARISTOTELIANISM, DESCARTES, AND HOBBES

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL EDWARDS
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The historiography of early modern Aristotelian philosophy and its relationship with its seventeenth-century critics, such as Hobbes and Descartes, has expanded in recent years. This article explores the dynamics of this project, focusing on a tendency to complicate and divide up the category of Aristotelianism into multiple ‘Aristotelianisms’, and the significance of this move for attempts to write a contextual history of the relationship of Hobbes and Descartes to their Aristotelian contemporaries and predecessors. In particular, it considers recent work on Cartesian and Hobbesian natural philosophy, and the ways in which historians have related the different forms of early modern Aristotelianism to the projects of the novatores.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Netherlandish Landscape Tradition on Poetry and Painting in Early Modern England*

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 866-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Trevisan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Rare Case ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Complex Product ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe relationship between poetry and painting has been one of the most debated issues in the history of criticism. The present article explores this problematic relationship in the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, taking into account theories of rhetoric, visual perception, and art. It analyzes a rare case in which a specific school of painting directly inspired poetry: in particular, the ways in which the Netherlandish landscape tradition influenced natural descriptions in the poem Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622) by Michael Drayton (1563–1631). Drayton — under the influence of the artistic principles of landscape depiction as explained in Henry Peacham’s art manuals, as well as of direct observation of Dutch and Flemish landscape prints and paintings — successfully managed to render pictorial landscapes into poetry. Through practical examples, this essay will thoroughly demonstrate that rhetoric is capable of emulating pictorial styles in a way that presupposes specialized art-historical knowledge, and that pictorialism can be the complex product as much of poetry and rhetoric as of painting and art-theoretical vocabulary.

scholarly journals Sacred Calendars: Calculation of the Hegira as a Historiographical Problem in Early Modern Spain

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-265
Author(s):  
Fernando Rodríguez Mediano
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Early Modern Spain ◽  
National History ◽  
Spanish History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sacred History

This paper studies how Early Modern Spanish historians confronted the problem of calculating the equivalence between the Christian Era and the Hegira. Chronological polemics concerning the Hegira were deeply embedded in a major historiographical problem, namely the role Islam and al-Andalus played in the history of Spain. Besides the technical issues, chronology is one of the most important ways by which an Islamic Iberian past was integrated in a narrative about national history. Once Islam became a historical actor for Spanish and European historians, rather than just a religion to confront, very important questions were raised: were Arabic sources necessary for the writing of Spanish history? What were these sources, and what was their value? Since al-Andalus was connected with the more general problem of the relationship of ancient Spain with the Orient (and, specifically, with the Biblical Orient), the chronological argument became a major issue in reflections on the limits and possibilities of writing the sacred history of Spain.

Re-entangling the Thermometer: Cornelis Drebbel’s Description of his Self-regulating Oven, the Regiment of Fire, and the Early History of Temperature

Nuncius ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Keller
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Feedback Control ◽  
Control Mechanism ◽  
Early History ◽  
Scientific Instrument ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

A new, illustrated source, “Drebbel’s Description of his Circulating Oven,” sheds light on the thermostatic oven of Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), a Dutch alchemist, engineer, and philosopher active in Holland, Zeeland, London and Prague. The “Description” survives in two German copies. It describes two new inventions, a “Judicium” (which we might call a thermometer) and a “Regimen” (which we might call a feedback control mechanism). It thus engages longstanding debates concerning the invention of the thermometer. More fundamentally, it engages the relationship of artisanality and philosophy. The “Description” highlights the entangled origins of both instruments, which emerged through combined concerns of alchemy, engineering, philosophy, and natural magic. In the early seventeenth century, the term “thermometer” indicated an object with a more expansive role than it later would. The later emergence of a distinct scientific instrument industry, separating previously entangled roles, has colored subsequent views of such instruments and their makers.

scholarly journals From Ingenium to Virtus: The Cultivation of Talent in Seventeenth Century Dissertations from Uppsala University

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hellerstedt
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Moral Socialization ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Concepts ◽  
Great Trust ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores the problem of innate, natural talent vs acquired skill, knowledge, and virtue in dissertations from Uppsala University around 1680. These texts have never before been studied. It discusses questions such as: how did Swedish academics of the period conceive the relationship between ingenium (innate potential) and (acquired) virtue or knowledge? Which teaching methods did they advocate? How do the texts relate to developments in seventeenth century society? The study uses a combination of contextual analysis and a ‘history of concepts’ approach to answer these questions. The analysis reveals that the Swedish dissertations respond to contemporary debates (involving well-known authorities such as Vives, Huarte, Erasmus, and Comenius) and that they were affected by the immediate context: the growth of the early modern state and the social mobility which accompanied that growth. Education is described in Renaissance humanist terms, with a clear affinity to moral philosophical concepts such as virtue and habituation. The learning process described is analogous to the acquisition of moral virtue and education itself is to a large extent legitimated with reference to moral socialization. The educational ideas put forward balance discipline and playfulness, and represent a relatively democratic view of the distribution of human capabilities, showing a great trust in the potential of education. However, there is also a distinct stress on medical explanations of differences in individual talent.

scholarly journals Literary Culture in the Holy Roman Empire, 1555-1720

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Early Modern Literature ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Literature

These essays discuss approaches to early modern literature in central Europe, focusing on four pivotal areas: connections between humanism and the new scientific thought the relationship of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century literature to ancient and Renaissance European traditions the social and political context of early modern writing and the poets' self-consciousness about their work. As a whole, the volume argues that early modern writing in central Europe should not be viewed solely as literature but as the textual product of specific social, political, educational, religious, and economic circumstances. The contributors are Judith P. Aikin, Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Thomas W. Best, Dieter Breuer, Barton W. Browning, Gerald Gillespie, Anthony Grafton, Gerhart Hoffmeister, Uwe-K. Ketelsen, Joseph Leighton, Ulrich Maché, Michael M. Metzger, James A. Parente, Jr., Richard Erich Schade, George C. Schoolfield, Peter Skrine, and Ferdinand van Ingen.

scholarly journals THE TRADITION OF ALCHEMICAL AND ASTROLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE WITHIN AND AROUND THEOPHAN PROKOPOVYCH’S LIBRARY

Skhid ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Kostiantyn RODYHIN ◽  
Mykhailo RODYHIN
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Physical Knowledge ◽  
Baroque Era ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Historiography

The important role of the alchemical and astrological tradition in the formation and trans-formation of science as a social institution in the Early Modern period is researched in detail in Western historiography of science. At the same time, the Ukrainian aspect of this pan-European phenomenon needs further intensive study.The article deals with the alchemical and astrological component of Ukrainian science of the High Baroque era on an example of Theophan Prokopovych (1677 – 1736). The analysis of the ca¬talog of Prokopovych’s library confirmed that the alchemical-astrological and magical-physical knowledge belonged to the sphere of interests of the scholar. His activity, in addi-tion to cosmogonic reasoning and mathematical calculations, also had a practical compo-nent. Books from the library’s holdings included works of late alchemy, which allowed Pro-kopovych to be aware of the latest ideas, trends, and achievements in this and related fields of knowledge. This is reflected in the formation of the worldview and creative work of the scholar.A comparison of the facts of biographies, the essence and direction of creativity, and the relationship of the authors mentioned in Prokopovych’s treatise “Natural Philosophy or Physics”, testified to the existence of the united pan-European scientific and information space, within which the tradition of late alchemy was formed and transformed during the 16th-18th centuries. Theophan Prokopovych also belonged to this tradition, and his works reflected the state and essence of Ukrainian alchemical knowledge of the High Baroque era. Prokopovych’s own views on problems of alchemy and astrology are a topic of special re-search.

scholarly journals GENDER IN THE HISTORY OF EARLY MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 843-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA BECKER
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIn the history of early modern political thought, gender is not well established as a subject. It seems that early modern politics and its philosophical underpinnings are characterized by an exclusion of women from the political sphere. This article shows that it is indeed possible to write a gendered history of early modern political thought that transcends questions of the structural exclusion of women from political participation. Through a nuanced reading of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century commentaries on Aristotle's practical philosophy, it deconstructs notions on the public/political and private/apolitical divide and reconstructs that early modern thinkers saw the relationship of husband and wife as deeply political. The article argues that it is both necessary and possible to write gender in and into the history of political thought in a historically sound and firmly contextual way that avoids anachronisms, and it shows – as Joan Scott has suggested – that gender is indeed a ‘useful category’ in the history of political thought.

A VICTORIAN INVENTION? THOMAS THORNYCROFT'S ‘BOADICEA GROUP’ AND THE IDEA OF HISTORICAL CULTURE IN BRITAIN

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTHA VANDREI
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Context

ABSTRACTThis article examines the figure of Boudica (or Boadicea), with a specific focus on Thomas Thornycroft's Westminster Bridge statue, and on the work of the seventeenth-century antiquary, Edmund Bolton. By synthesizing historiography which investigates the idea of ‘historical culture’ in the modern and early modern periods, this article attempts to bridge chronological and generic divisions which exist in the study of the history of history. It argues that to fully understand the genealogy of popular historical ideas like Boudica, it is imperative that historians of such subjects take alongue-duréeapproach that situates individual artists and writers, and the historical-cultural works they produce, within their broader political, cultural, and social contexts while simultaneously viewing these works as part of a long, discursive process by which the past is successively reinterpreted. As a consequence, this article eschews an analysis of Boudica which labels her an ‘imperial icon’ for Victorian Britons, and argues that the relationship between contemporary context and the re-imagined past is not as straightforward as it might initially appear.

Confessionalisation and Erudition in Early Modern Europe

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ways in which erudition contributed to—or clashed with—the formation of confessional identities in the wake of the Reformation, at individual, institutional, national and international levels. Covering Catholics and Protestants in equal measure, the essays assess biblical criticism; the study of the church fathers; the ecclesiastical censorship of scholarly works; oriental studies and the engagement with Near Eastern languages, texts and communities; and the relationship between developments in scholarship and other domains, including practical piety, natural philosophy, and the universities and seminaries where most intellectual activity was still conducted. One of the volume’s main strengths is its chronological coverage. It begins with an unprecedentedly detailed and comprehensive review of the scholarly literature in this field and proceeds with case studies ranging from the early Reformation to the eighteenth century. The volume also features the publication of a remarkable new manuscript detailing Isaac Newton’s early theological studies in 1670s Cambridge. It will be of interest not only to early modern intellectual and religious historians, but also to those with broader interests in religious change, the reception of oriental and classical sources and traditions, the history of science, and in the sociology of knowledge.

Middle and Old Arabic Material for the History of Stress in Arabic

1972 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Balu
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sudden Death ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
Secondary Origin ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arabic Dialects ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Classical Arabic

The scholastic investigation of stress in Arabic starts with Lambert's pioneering article in 1897. Lambert demonstrated that the accepted stress of Classical Arabic is not based on genuine tradition, but was formulated at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Erpenius, who was influenced by the (Syrian–) Lebanese pronunciation of Classical Arabic. Recognizing the secondary origin of the traditional stress in Classical Arabic, Lambert established the relationship of stress in Classical Arabic to that of the various Arabic dialects on an entirely new basis. He himself emphasized the originality of stress as it is preserved in the Maghribī dialects (ibid., 409).3 In 1907 the first fascicle of Brockelmann's monumental Grundriss appeared, in which (pp. 82 ff.) Brockel-mann advocated the originality of the traditional accentuation in Classical Arabic, as generally preserved in the Syrian-Lebanese dialects. In 1908, Kampffmeyer reached the conclusion that the system of stress in the Maghribī dialects is more original than that of the Syrian-Lebanese group. However, since he published only the first part of his Untersuchungen, he dealt only with the stress in Spanish Arabic and the Moroccan (pp. 7–58), in addition to his results (pp. 1–7) contained in his brief introduction. A short synopsis of his views, with additional material, is included in Kampffmeyer, EI. An important review of the stress in Arabic (pp. 35–41) is contained in Sarauw. Despite the late appearance of his work (1939), he had almost completed it at the time of his sudden death in 1925. Moreover, the main body of his treatise had been composed as early as 1908 (cf. p. 3), the same year in which Kampffmeyer claimed the originality of the Western (Maghribī) stress.

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