Summary Descartes' two treatises of corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy?Le Monde (1633) and the Principia philosophiae (1644/1647)?differ in many respects. Some historians of science have studied their significantly different theories of matter and elements. Others have routinely noted that the Principia cites much evidence regarding magnetism, sunspots, novae and variable stars which is absent from Le Monde. We argue that far from being unrelated or even opposed intellectual practices inside the Principles, Descartes' moves in matter and element theory and his adoption of (...) wide swathes of novel matters of fact, were two sides of the same coin?that coin being his strategies for improving the systematic power, scope and consistency of the natural philosophy presented in the Principia. We find that Descartes' systematising strategy centred upon weaving ranges of novel matters of fact into explanatory and descriptive narratives with cosmic sweep and radical realist Copernican intent. Gambits of this type have recently been labelled as ?cosmographical? (the natural philosophical relating of heavens and earth in contemporary usage). Realist Copernican natural philosophers, from Copernicus himself, through Bruno, Gilbert and Galileo did this to varying degrees; but, we suggest, Descartes presented in Books III and IV of the Principia the most elaborate and strategically planned version of it, underneath the ostensible textbook style of the work. (shrink)

One of the chief concerns of the young Descartes was with what he, and others, termed “physico-mathematics”. This signalled a questioning of the Scholastic Aristotelian view of the mixed mathematical sciences as subordinate to natural philosophy, non explanatory, and merely instrumental. Somehow, the mixed mathematical disciplines were now to become intimately related to natural philosophical issues of matter and cause. That is, they were to become more ’physicalised’, more closely intertwined with natural philosophising, regardless of which species of natural philosophy (...) one advocated. A curious, short-lived yet portentous epistemological conceit lay at the core of Descartes’ physico-mathematics—the belief that solid geometrical results in the mixed mathematical sciences literally offered windows into the realm of natural philosophical causation—that in such cases one could literally “see the causes”. Optics took pride of place within Descartes’ physico-mathematics project, because he believed it offered unique possibilities for the successful vision of causes. This paper traces Descartes’ early physico-mathematical program in optics, its origins, pitfalls and its successes, which were crucial in providing Descartes resources for his later work in systematic natural philosophy. It explores how Descartes exploited his discovery of the law of refraction of light—an achievement well within the bounds of traditional mixed mathematical optics—in order to derive—in the manner of physico-mathematics—causal knowledge about light, and indeed insight about the principles of a “dynamics” that would provide the laws of corpuscular motion and tendency to motion in his natural philosophical system. (shrink)

This is a revised and enlarged edition of Ariew’s well received 1999 collection, then entitled Descartes and the Last Scholastics. Ariew’s introduction usefully details all the changes and additions he has made. Just as the first volume was required reading for Cartesian scholars, this second, fifty percent larger and even better edition should replace the original on their bookshelves. Obviously, the volume is not a monograph, and so there is some repetition among the chapters. But, there is an overarching rationale (...) and interpretive strategy rendering the volume a highly satisfying unity:…before asking what philosophers hold and why, we need to familiarize ourselves with the philosophical options open to them and the language used to express such options. We need to understand the meaning those terms had in that particular culture, the significance of various philosophical views for the culture, and so on. (11)The ‘options’ and ‘language’ Ariew has in view are those derived from conte. (shrink)

The European birth of modern science: an exercise in macro and comparative history Content Type Journal Article Category Essay Review Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s11016-012-9645-6 Authors John A. Schuster, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science and Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.