The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter in Seventeenth-century Natural Philosophy

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Rita Palmerino

AbstractThis article documents the general tendency of seventeenth-century natural philosophers, irrespective of whether they were atomists or anti-atomists, to regard space, time and matter as magnitudes having the same internal composition. It examines the way in which authors such as Fromondus, Basson, Sennert, Arriaga, Galileo, Magnen, Descartes, Gassendi, Charleton as well as the young Newton motivated their belief in the isomorphism of space, time and matter, and how this belief reflected on their views concerning the relation between geometry and physics. Special attention is paid to the fact that most of the authors mentioned above regarded rarefaction and condensation, on the one hand, and acceleration and deceleration, on the other hand, as analogous phenomena, which consequently had to be explained in similar terms.

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Benoît Godin

Our present understanding of innovation is closely linked to science and research on the one hand and economy and industry on the other. It has not always been so. Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the concept was mainly used in religious and political discourses. In these contexts, actors used it in a pejorative sense. Innovation, imagined as a radical transformation, was considered a peril to the established social order. Such was natural philosophers’ understanding. This article documents Francis Bacon’s work as an eminent example of such a representation. To Bacon, natural philosophy and innovation are two distinct spheres of activity. It is documented that Bacon’s uses of the concept of innovation are found mainly in political, legal, and moral writings, not natural philosophy, because to Bacon and all others of his time, innovation is poli tical.


1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cees Leijenhorst

AbstractThomas Hobbes's doctrine of space is here considered as an example of the Nachzuirkung of Jesuit commentaries on Aristotle's natural philosophy (especially those by Toletus, Pereira, Suarez, Fonseca and the Conimbricenses) in seventeenth-century mechanistic science. Hobbes's doctrine of space can be reconstructed in terms of his intensive dialogue with late scholasticism, as represented in the works of several important Jesuit authors. Although he presents his concept of space as an alternative to the Aristotelian notion of place, there are some remarkable similarities between Hobbes's alternative notion of space and the concept of spatium imaginarium, found in the Jesuit commentaries. While Hobbes adopts many scholastic elements, he employs these to his own purposes. Thus, on the one hand, this article does not so much challenge Hobbes's "modernity", but rather tries to put it in its proper perspective. On the other hand, it tries to show the vitality and importance of Jesuit natural philosophy in non- or even anti-Aristotelian contexts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Assist. Prof. Dr. Kazım Yıldırım

The cultural environment of Ibn al-Arabi is in Andalusia, Spain today. There, on the one hand, Sufism, on the other hand, thinks like Ibn Bacce (Death.1138), Ibn Tufeyl (Death186), Ibn Rushd (Death.1198) and the knowledge and philosophy inherited by scholars, . Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240), that was the effect of all this; But more mystic (mystic) circles came out of the way. This work, written by Ibn al-Arabi's works (especially Futuhati Mekkiye), also contains a very small number of other relevant sources.


Author(s):  
Ulf Brunnbauer

This chapter analyzes historiography in several Balkan countries, paying particular attention to the communist era on the one hand, and the post-1989–91 period on the other. When communists took power in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia in 1944–5, the discipline of history in these countries—with the exception of Albania—had already been institutionalized. The communists initially set about radically changing the way history was written in order to construct a more ideologically suitable past. In 1989–91, communist dictatorships came to an end in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania. Years of war and ethnic cleansing would ensue in the former Yugoslavia. These upheavals impacted on historiography in different ways: on the one hand, the end of communist dictatorship brought freedom of expression; on the other hand, the region faced economic displacement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-129
Author(s):  
Phillip Andrew Davis

Abstract Despite the popular notion of Marcion’s outright rejection of the Jewish Scriptures, his gospel draws on those Scriptures not infrequently. While this might appear inconsistent with Marcion’s theological thought, a pattern is evident in the way his gospel uses Scripture: On the one hand, Marcion’s gospel includes few of the direct, marked quotations of Scripture known from canonical Luke, and in none of those cases does Jesus himself fulfill Scripture. On the other hand, Marcion’s gospel includes more frequent indirect allusions to Scripture, several of which imply Jesus’ fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. This pattern suggests a Marcionite redaction of Luke whereby problematic marked quotes were omitted, while allusions were found less troublesome or simply overlooked due to their implicit nature.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Smith

This paper examines the intersecting of the themes of temporality and truth in Deleuze's philosophy. For the ancients, truth was something eternal: what was true was true in all times and in all places. Temporality (coming to be and passing away) was the realm of the mutable, not the eternal. In the seventeenth century, change began to be seen in a positive light (progress, evolution, and so on), but this change was seen to be possible only because of the immutable laws of nature that govern change. It was not until philosophers such as Bergson, James, Whitehead – and then Deleuze – that time began to be taken seriously on its own account. On the one hand, in Deleuze, time, freed from its subordination to movement, now becomes autonomous: it is the pure form of change (continuous variation) that lies at the basis of Deleuze's metaphysics in Difference and Repetition (and is explored more thematically in The Time-Image). As a result, on the other hand, the false, freed from its subordination to the form of the true, assumes a power of its own (the power of the false), which in turn implies a new ‘analytic of the concept’ that Deleuze develops in What Is Philosophy?


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sefriyono Sefriyono

Of the 114 surahs in the Qur'an, there are 24 surahs with 164 verses that talk about jihad in various variations of words. Of the 164 verses, there are 22 verses that have the potential for acts of violence if understood literally and coupled with the dominance of qital words in these verses. The qital verses are said to have been revealed more in the Medina period, when compared to the Mecca period, which talked a lot about self-control. The dynamics of the Muslims at that time also contributed to the change in the terminology of jihad. Jihad is not only defined by war or acts of violence. The invitation of parents to polytheism, for example, as contained in chapter 29 paragraph 8 and letter 31 paragraph 15 does not have to be fought with violence. This verse even continues to recommend to continue to do good to the parents in question. In other Surahs such as Sura 45 verse 15 there is also a recommendation with wealth, not carrying weapons. This has given rise to various forms of meaning about jihad, such as greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar)—the struggle against self and lesser jihad (al-jihad al-asghar)—fighting those who are hostile to the way of Allah. On the one hand, jihad can also be interpreted in an esoteric way—mujahadah, namely a genuine effort to draw closer to Allah, on the other hand, it can also be interpreted exoteric—the holy war.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-145
Author(s):  
André Luiz Cruz Sousa

The aim of this paper is to study a set of three issues related to the understanding of partial justice and partial injustice as character dispositions, namely the distinctive circumstance of action, the emotion involved therein and the pleasure or pain following it. Those points are treated in a relatively obscure way by Aristotle, especially in comparison with their treatment in the expositions of other character virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics. Building on the expression ‘capacity towards the other’ (δύναμις ἐν τῷ πρὸς ἕτερον), the paper highlights the interpersonal nature of the circumstances of just and unjust actions, and points how such nature is directly related to notions such as ‘profit’ (κέρδος) or ‘getting more’(πλεονεκτεῖν) as well as to the unusual conception of excess, defect and intermediacy in Nicomachean Ethics Book V. The interpersonal nature of just and unjust actions works also as the starting-point for the interpretation both of the pleasure briefly mentioned in 1130b4 as characterizing the greedy person and of the emotion involved in acting justly or greedy, which is mentioned in an extremely elliptical way in 1130b1-2: the paper argues, on the one hand, that the pleasure felt in acting justly or unjustly concerns not only the goods that are the object of just or unjust interactions, but also the way such interactions affect the people involved; on the other hand, it argues that the emotion actuated in just or unjust interactions relates to the agent’s concern or lack of concern with the good of those people.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabi Reinmann

Bardone and Bauters suggest a re-conceptualization of design-based research using the classical term "phronesis" and question some methodological developments referring to the role of intervention and theory in design-based research. This discussion article is a comment on the text of Bardone and Bauters and pursues two aims: On the one hand the term “phronesis” is connected to the traditional concept of “pädagogischer Takt” (literally: “pedagogical tact”) to stimulate a joint discourse of both traditions. On the other hand, two main suggestions of Bardone und Bauters are critically examined, namely their proposal to conceptualize intervention in design-based research exclusively as an action, and their call for deriving generalizations via experiences instead of theories. The discussion article finally argues for maintaining the integrative power of design-based research by avoiding one-sided interpretations.  


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Quantin

AbstractIn seventeenth-century religious discourse, the status of solitude was deeply ambivalent: on the one hand, solitude was valued as a setting and preparation for self-knowledge and meditation; on the other hand, it had negative associations with singularity, pride and even schism. The ambiguity of solitude reflected a crucial tension between the temptation to withdraw from contemporary society, as hopelessly corrupt, and endeavours to reform it. Ecclesiastical movements which stood at the margins of confessional orthodoxies, such as Jansenism (especially in its moral dimension of Rigorism), Puritanism and Pietism, targeted individual conscience but also worked at controlling and disciplining popular behaviour. They may be understood as attempts to pursue simultaneously withdrawal and engagement.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document