Teleology in Spinoza and Early Modern Rationalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Teleological Explanation ◽  
Divine Will

This chapter argues that (1) Spinoza accepts the legitimacy of many teleological explanations; (2) in two important respects, Leibniz’s view of teleology is not more Aristotelian than Descartes’s; and (3) among Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, Spinoza holds the view of teleology closest to Aristotle’s. The arguments for (1) draw on Spinoza’s treatment of conatus; a critical analysis of Jonathan Bennett’s arguments that Spinoza denies all teleology; and the application Spinoza’s distinction of three kinds of cognition to the distinction between mechanistic and teleological explanation. The arguments for (2) and (3) are based on an examination of the answers given by Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza to four basic questions about the nature and range of teleology and teleological explanation. These questions concern the dependence of teleology on thought, the relation of teleology to divine will or purpose, the existence of “subhuman” teleology, and the role of teleological explanation in natural philosophy.

The Normalisation of Natural Philosophy: Occasional Causality and Coarse-Grained Reality

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-236
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Mutual Adaptation ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
Conceptual Changes ◽  
Preliminary Application ◽  
The Way

This article investigates whether it possible to derive a new narrative about the transformation of early modern natural philosophy from the way in which natural philosophy was systematized in academic writings. It introduces the notion of ‘normalisation’—the mutual adaptation of certain ideas and existing traditions—as a way of studying and explaining conceptual changes during relatively long periods of time. The article provides the methodological underpinnings of this account of normalisation and offers a preliminary application of it by focusing on the role of ‘occasional causality’ in natural philosophy through the writings of four authors: Pierre Sylvain Régis (1632-1707), Johann Christoph Sturm (1635-1703), Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who progressively normalise an account of ‘occasional causality’.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
New Materials ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Topic ◽  
History Of Universities

This monographic issue of History of Universities presents new materials and case studies in order to deepen our understanding of the role of the academic milieu in the early modern reshaping of natural philosophy. The contributions included in this volume aim to pursue two main axes of research: (1) the reconstruction and exploration of the dialectics between tradition and innovation in the reshaping of natural philosophy; (2) the attempt to constitute and consolidate new traditions in natural philosophy. This introduction presents the general topic of the volume, the methodological approach developed by the contributors and the contents of each contribution.

Early Modern Theology and Science

2014 ◽  
pp. 607-624
Author(s):  
John Henry
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Mechanical Philosophy ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
Natural Philosophers

This chapter surveys prominent aspects of historical relations between theology and science in the early modern period. It argues that the medieval “handmaiden tradition,” in which natural philosophy was seen as a support to theology, continued throughout the period but with apologetic complications caused by the fragmentation of religious authority, and the proliferation of alternative new philosophies. It considers the mechanical philosophy and the concomitant concept of laws of nature, and their impact on mind-body dualism, and the development of natural theology. It also considers the role of natural philosophy in the rise of atheism, arguing that it did not create atheists, but was appropriated by them. Devout natural philosophers played into the hands of atheists by arguing among themselves as to the best way to combat atheism, and by taking a naturalistic line in their arguments, relegating God to the role of a remote primary cause and increasingly denying Providence. Finally, it considers persistent suggestions that Protestantism played a greater role in the promotion of the natural sciences than Catholicism. We consider here claims about millennialism as a stimulus to science; the effect of Protestant attitudes to the Bible and how it should be read,; and the role of Augustinian post-lapsarian anthropology.

History of Universities Volume XXXIII/2

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
New Materials ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Topic ◽  
History Of Universities

This book on the history of universities presents new materials and case studies in order to deepen understanding of the role of the academic milieu in the early modern reshaping of natural philosophy. The chapters included in this volume aim to pursue two main axes of research: the reconstruction and exploration of the dialectics between tradition and innovation in the reshaping of natural philosophy; the attempt to constitute and consolidate new traditions in natural philosophy. The introduction presents the general topic of the volume, the methodological approach developed by the contributors, and the contents of each contribution.

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.

Francis Bacon and His Fate in the History and Philosophy of Science, 2010–2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Doina-Cristina Rusu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Theory And Experiments

In this review I analyse new trends in Bacon-scholarship over the last decade. Bacon’s role in the history and philosophy of science has been the topic of debate since the second half of the seventeenth century. Scholars took him to be either a key figure in the emergence of experimental sciences, or the opposite of what science is supposed to be. However, most of these bold claims were based on distortions and misunderstandings of Bacon’s programme. Starting in the last couple of decades of the twentieth century, several studies offered a more nuanced account of Bacon’s philosophy and tried to refute some of the ‘unsound criticisms’. Moreover, over the last decade, we can notice a tendency to focus on Bacon’s more practical works, and not only on the more theoretical ones. In the context of these practical works, I identified several new trends: the role of the natural and experimental histories in the overall project of the Great Instauration, and their relation with natural philosophy; the function of mathematics and quantification; the employment of instruments and other devices to overcome the shortcomings of both the senses and the minds; the scientific methodology with an emphasis on the relation between theory and experiments, and the use of exploratory experiments; and finally Bacon’s use of sources and his influence on later early modern authors. As opposed to the idea that Bacon was interested either in collecting random facts or in inventing experimental reports to present his speculative ideas, Bacon is lately portrayed as a careful experimenter, meticulous in writing reports, ingenious in designing instruments and new experiments, and critical towards his own conceptions.

Medical Topics in the De anima Commentary of Coimbra (1598) and the Jesuits’ Attitude towards Medicine in Education and Natural Philosophy

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Sander
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
De Anima ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
Jesuit Universities ◽  
Modern Learning ◽  
Jesuit College

Early-modern Jesuit universities did not offer studies in medicine, and from 1586 onwards, the Jesuit Ratio studiorum prohibited digressions on medical topics in the Aristotelian curriculum. However, some sixteenth-century Jesuit text books used in philosophy classes provided detailed accounts on physiological issues such as sense perception and its organic location as discussed in Aristotle’s De anima II, 7–11. This seeming contradiction needs to be explained. In this paper, I focus on the interst in medical topics manifested in a commentary by the Jesuits of Coimbra. Admittedly, the Coimbra commentary constituted an exception, as the Jesuit college that produced it was integrated in a royal university which had a strong interest in educating physicians. It will be claimed that the exclusion of medicine at Jesuit universities and colleges had its origin in rather incidental events in the course of the foundation of the first Jesuit university in Sicily. There, the lay professors of law and medicine intended to avoid subordination to the Jesuits and thereby provoked a conflict which finally led the Jesuit administration to refrain from including faculties of medicine and law in Jesuit universities. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a veritable Jesuit animosity towards medicine emerged for philosophical and pedagogical reasons. This development reflects educational concerns within the Society as well as the role of commentaries on Aristotle for early-modern learning.


The economy of nature in the botany of Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712)

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Anker
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Book Of Nature ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Mechanical Reasoning ◽  
Laboratory Life ◽  
Economy Of Nature

Historians of natural history often point to the emergence of mathematical and mechanical reasoning in the early-modern period as a pivotal episode in scientifi c understanding of the organic world. This paper visits the natural philosophy of one of the chief supporters of this view of nature, the first curator of plants at The Royal Society, Nehemiah Grew. It sets his work within the material world of patronage, medical and mathematical tools, laboratory life, and his views on human virtues, health and the role of women. The view taken is of Grew as a religiously informed natural philosopher whose understanding of the economy of nature acknowledges the wisdom of the Creator and the possibility of gaining spiritual and bodily health from studying the language of the book of nature. The quest to understand nature's language consisted in tempering human will and arrogance so that one could appreciate the Lord's creative power in the world. As representative of The Royal Society's promotion of empirical and mechanical research, Grew mobilized excitement for natural history and botany with an ethos of showing respect to nature's economy.

Introduction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin E. H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
History Of ◽  
Discrete Domain

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the place of biology in early modern natural philosophy. “Biology,” though it did not yet exist in name, or even as a discrete domain of scientific inquiry, was at the very heart of many of the most important debates in seventeenth-century philosophy. Yet while in recent decades much important scholarly work has emerged on the early modern life sciences, the perception persists in the broader scholarly community that the seventeenth century was principally a period in which physics was of central importance. The chapter considers the role of the phenomena of life in the systems of Aristotle, Descartes, and Hobbes in the background of Leibniz's philosophy. It then summarizes the main points on which Leibniz distinguishes his theory from those of his predecessors in the history of philosophical reflection on the nature, structure, and generation of living entities.

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