Early modern study of plants blossomed in a network of observation, exchanges, collaborations, and epistolary discussions. Following Baconian methodology, Dutch scholars combined the labor of listing and describing plants with botanical experimentation. This empirical approach was a suitable context for Descartes, who exchanged information and performed observations on plants in collaboration with Dutch experimenters. In this article, I focus on (1) the reception of a few botanical experiments of Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum in Huygens and Reneri, with whom Descartes was in (...) contact, and (2) Descartes’ collaboration with Reneri. While performing observations on plants together, Reneri acquired Descartes’ theoretical framework (as it arises in his disputations) and influenced the latter with a Baconian approach to the study of living nature. This combination of experimental knowledge and a theoretical framework shaped a Cartesian study of plants, as it later surfaced in Regius and ultimately paved the way to a modern science of plants. (shrink)

In 1675, Burchard de Volder (1643–1709) was the first professor to introduce the demonstration of experiment into a university physics course and built the Leiden Physics Theatre to accommodate this new pedagogy. When he requested the funds from the university to build the facility, he claimed that the performance of experiments would demonstrate the “truth and certainty” of the postulates of theoretical physics. Such a claim is interesting given de Volder’s lifelong commitment to Cartesian scientia. This chapter will examine de (...) Volder’s views on experiment and show that they are not Newtonian or inductivist, as is sometimes claimed. While de Volder thinks we need deductive reasoning from first principles to provide evidence of the certainty of the content of our physical theories, he also contends that we need experiment to provide evidence of the certainty of the existence of the particular bodies those theories discuss. This approach to experiment is based on a distinction between rational certainty and the certainty of material bodies in the actual world. While this account is deeply influenced by Descartes, it is importantly different than Descartes’ distinction between absolute and moral certainty. De Volder’s “Cartesian Empiricism” is best understood as a continuation and further development of a long tradition of teaching through observation at Leiden. (shrink)

Purpose. Modern philosophy is presented as practical and is based on the necessity to give a new meaning and interpretation to moral and ethical problems. Purpose of the paper is to comprehend specifics of modern perception of Cartesian interpretation of nature and man that implies consistent stages of technomorphic perception, critical analysis of its authenticity in research literature and understanding of rehabilitation tendency of Descartes' ethics as practical philosophy. Originality. The research is focused on the problem of technomorphism authenticity in (...) the process of understanding and interpreting Descartes' practical philosophy. The authors are trying to defend rationale for phenomena interpretation concerning Descartes' technocratic orientation in terms of his ethical search. Critical interpretations of limited technomorphic perception of nature and man should be understood as some transition period towards ethics rehabilitation as practical philosophy. The study of Descartes on nature in its broad sense as metaphysical basis of his ethics has been revealed and analyzed. Conclusions. Technocratic interpretation of Descartes study is a superficial and distorted form of his practical philosophy interpretation. Until recently technomorphic perception of Descartes' study dominated in scientific literature, which has significantly determined limited perception of nature and man combined with superficial ethics perception. Critical rethinking of the developed Descartes' interpretations in recent scientific papers solves at the same time the tasks of theoretical denial of simplistic world perception and gives grounds for ethics rehabilitation as authentic form of its practical philosophy expression. One form of rehabilitation expression is increased attention to the concept of nature in its broad sense, which is a basis for its humanistic and ethical vision of philosophical tasks. (shrink)