This work takes into account three Cartesian manuals diffused in 17th century France ; Jacques Rohault, Traité de physique ; Pierre-Sylvain Régis, Cours entier de philosophie, ou système general selon les principes de M. Descartes contenant la logique, la metaphysique, la physique et la morale ) in order to question if the development of an empirical attitude in the scientific research influenced their approaches to the study of motion. The article intends to deepen the role that these authors give (...) to God in the physical structure of the universe with the purpose of investigating whether their analysis of motion is untainted by the metaphysical component or on what terms it remains linked to it. (shrink)

The present study aims to analyze the relations between the doctrine of Reason of State and Utopianism in the Italian political culture during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Its focus is on the use of time prescribed to the prince as a peculiar tool for preserving his power and the state, while for the utopists time is a condition for rationalising the life of their ideal communities. On the other hand some authors of Reason of State and utopists considered (...) the perfection of the political and social institutions the only way for stabilizing the state, but the perfection is a metaphysical feature devoted to stop the corruption of the political community. So, even in this view, Reason of State and Utopianism are two doctrines that both teach the conservation of the state. (shrink)

Les historiens qui se sont intéressés à la sexualité au xviie siècle ont souvent noté qu’il était rare d’accéder à une parole féminine. Quelques bribes en subsistent pourtant, que délivrent les biographies et autobiographies spirituelles de femmes dévotes et les archives des tribunaux d’Église (Officialités). À partir de cette parole enchâssée dans d’autres discours – ceux des hommes et femmes d’Église qui les recueillent, ceux des juges qui les enregistrent –, opacifiée par des visées particulières – hagiographique ou judiciaire –, (...) censurée parfois, on ne peut espérer atteindre la réalité des pratiques sexuelles. En revanche, les silences qui la ponctuent donnent à voir l’importance de l’ignorance, de l’innocence et de la feinte dans l’expérience féminine de la sexualité depuis les fantasmes et les découvertes de l’enfance jusqu’aux premiers temps du mariage. (shrink)

Le propos de l’article est l’analyse de la cérémonie de la prise d’habit au sein de l’Ordre Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel aux xviie et xviiie siècles. À partir des sources normatives, picturales et hagiographiques, cette cérémonie est détaillée, notamment la scénographie de l’avant/après, gommant toute marque féminine (présence de cheveux, soins pour un teint pâle, vêtement ajusté, usage de soieries, de bijoux, etc.). Certaines pratiques témoignent de la mise en impatience de ce passage de la soie au drap, qui se traduit (...) par des prises d’habit clandestines, prématurées ou des portraits de mondaines usurpatrices en habit de carmélites. Il est vrai que le modèle absolu de La Madeleine, compte tenu des origines le plus souvent princières des postulantes, n’est pas étranger au prestige de la métamorphose. Réalité et construction représentative permettent de montrer comment le Carmel s’est approprié une cérémonie, qui, dans le contexte compétitif entre les ordres de la liturgie tridentine, valorise la femme, par le biais de la moniale, affranchie des attributs de son sexe. Mais surtout, la vêture a su rendre spectaculaire et désirable ce qui a priori ne l’est pas, la pauvreté et la pénitence du corps et de ses attributs, dans le but avoué du recrutement de nouvelles postulantes. De la rivalité entre drap et soie, le vainqueur n’est pas forcément celui que l’on croit. (shrink)

Doctors have always thought, it seems, that the female body is more susceptible to illness than the male. Ancient medicine founded this dogma on the doctrine of elementary qualities, in attributing to woman a cold and humid constitution. As heat is the principal instrument which nature uses to produce the forces of the body and to maintain them, it must be lacking in woman, as is proved by her weakness, the softness of her limbs, her lack of external sexual organs (...) and the crudeness of her menstrual blood. If the Aristotelians and the Galenists diverge, in the Renaissance and in the XVIIth century, about the nature—fertile or not—of the “female seed,” they agree to pledge the female body to illnesses. Such a predisposition is explained by the female constitution: its coldness and its humidity, as well as retaining women's strength badly, contribute to giving them a “soft, slack body, of rare texture,” little suited to letting the body fluids, of which it is full, circulate correctly; their blood, corrupted by humidity, instead of being properly heated like it is in men, accumulates, blocks up the too small blood-vessels and causes all the illnesses of which they are the habitual victims. To this it is necessary to add the pathogenic importance of the womb, “a part of the body so sensitive and so easily upset, that its least indisposition causes an infinity of strange and almost unbearable evils.” The indispositions which affect this part of the body are always in relation to humidity or dryness, that is with “the two excrements” which it receives: sperm and menstrual blood. Whether, insufficiently impregnated by the virile liquor, “it mounts to the liver and other higher parts of the body to suck humidity from them until it becomes moist,” or it retains for an abnormally long time the seed, which decays inside it; or the periods are suppressed, or on the other hand they are produced too often; all womens illnesses are a question of impeded or excessive discharge. (shrink)

In the XVIIth century the conflict which opposed the jansenists to the jesuits involved the problem of the due process in theological matter. The jesuits heralded the thesis that the infallibility of the Church has to be extended from dogmatics (‘quaestio iuris’) to the historical facts (‘quaestio facti’). On the opposite side Arnauld maintained that such an opinion was ‘monstruous’: also in religious matters the ‘fact’ has to be proved according to the principles of a due process, and (...) not by authority. In this article the thesis pleaded by the jansenists is considered in connection with the model of argumentative procedure offered by the Port-Royal logic.The Logique ou Art de penser (1622) by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole seems to have rediscovered the classical principles of the theory of argumentation: from the burden of proof to the idea of probable truth. But really a new model of adversary-system has been introduced into the modern mind, which is very different in concept from the topical tradition. The basic metaphor of combat, implying that the truth will prevail in the fight, is compatible with the epistemological premises of the modern logic (as the separation between ‘fact’ and ‘value’). Therefore the problem of the fact-finding seems to be attracted into the area of the logic of information, and not of the theory of argumentation. (shrink)

This article is concerned with the Spinozian topic of understanding human actions and its interpretation by Nietzsche in The Gay Science 333. Nietzsche doesn’t read directly Spinoza’s work but rather the volume of Kuno Fischer’s History of Modern Philosophy dedicated to the XVIIth century philosopher; this can be confirmed by the way in which the text is quoted. Even if Nietzsche reduces greatly the power of understanding to one of its aspect translating intelligere as erkennen, it is necessary (...) to emphasize that the aphorism presents a novelty that can enrich the study of the relationship between these two philosophers. Nietzsche identifies conscious thought with the “last scenes of reconciliation” between different drives of a previous unconscious process. Even if the point of departure of this survey is the centrality of affects in both thinkers, it will also identify a precise limit which distances Spinoza’s understanding of the affects from the centrality of drives in Nietzsche’s philosophical project. (shrink)

Theory and history combine in this book to form a coherent narrative of the debates on language and languages in the Western world, from ancient classic philosophy to the present, with a final glance at on-going discussions on language as a cognitive tool, on its bodily roots and philogenetic role.An introductory chapter reviews the epistemological areas that converge into, or contribute to, language philosophy, and discusses their methods, relations, and goals. In this context, the status of language philosophy is discussed (...) in its relation to the sciences and the arts of language. Each chapter is followed by a list of suggested readings that refer the reader to the final bibliography."About the author" Lia Formigari, Professor Emeritus at University of Rome, La Sapienza. Her publications include: "Language and Experience in XVIIth-century British Philosophy." Amsterdam & Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1988; "Signs, Science and Politics. Philosophies of Language in Europe 1700 1830." Amsterdam & Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1993; "La semiotique empiriste face au kantisme." Liege: Mardaga, 1994. (shrink)

Cette étude montre comment s’élabore une doctrine de l’objet, et de l’objectité, de la scolastique du XIIIe siècle jusqu’au XVIIe, par une succession de créations conceptuelles et de ruptures interprétatives. Elle débouche sur l’opposition entre concept formel et concept objectif au XVIIe siècle. De cette histoire retrouvée découle une nouvelle évaluation de l’argument cartésien sur l’existence de Dieu.This study shows how a theory of object, and of « objectity » is elaborated, from XIIIth century’s scholasticism to the XVIIth (...) century, through a series of conceptual creations and interpretative breaks. It runs into the opposition between formal and objective concept in the XVIIth century. From this rediscovered story follows a new assessment on the Cartesian argument for God’s existence. (shrink)

The History of scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza is often called upon to support three theses: first, that Descartes had a dogmatic notion of systematic knowledge, and therefore of physics; second, that the hypothetical epistemology of physics which spread during the xviith century was the result of a general sceptical crisis; third, that this epistemology was more successful in England than in France. I reject these three theses: I point first to the tension in Descartes’ works between the (...) ideal of a completely certain science and a physics replete with hypotheses; further, I argue that the use of hypotheses by mechanical philosophers cannot be separated from their conception of physics; finally I show that, at the end of the xviith century, physicists in France as well as in England spoke through hypotheses and I examine different ways of explaining this shared practice. Richard H. Popkin’s book serves therefore as a starting point for insights into the general problem: to what extent and for what reasons some propositions in physics have been presented as hypotheses in the xviith century? (shrink)

This article starts, on the one hand, with a consideration of the paradoxical way in which, namely when he wanted to evoke those intellectual figures that have decidedly contributed to the revelation of the "true Pascal", i. e., of the Pascal that had known the good usage of reason, Fortunat Strowski comes to the idea of putting side by side Pierre Duhem and Leon Brunschvicg. On the other, a reference is made to the fact that Duhem only published two articles (...) and a preface on Pascal while Brunschvicg is the author of a major work on the great figure of the XVIIth -Century. Hence, the question raised is about the consideration that shall be given to a paradoxical affirmation that seems to place on equal terms the few pages that Duhem has written on Pascal with the imposing contributions of Brunschvicg. For the author of the article, it would not be very consequent to take such affirmations as if they were unreflected ones, since it is clear that Strowski knew exactly what he was writing as we can see from the very good knowledge he had of the writings of both Blaise Pascal and Pierre Duhem. Indeed, and more than anyone else, Strowski was in a very good position to enlighten us about these two thinkers and to write about them in the terms he effectively did. The goal of the article, therefore, is to justify that assertion, which on its face is quite paradoxical, by showing in concrete terms the extent to which Pierre Duhem was truly influenced by Blaise Pascal. ––– O presente artigo começa por realçar o modo paradoxal como, uma vez que ele se dá ao trabalho de evocar aqueles autores que contribuíram para a revelação do verdadeiro Pascal, ou seja, daquele que conheceu o bom uso da razão, Fortunat Strowski não hesita em colocar o nome de Pierre Duhem lado a lado com o de Léon Brunschvicg. O facto, porém, é que Pierre Duhem não fez mais do que publicar dois artigos e um prefácio sobre Blaise Pascal, ao passo que Brunschvicg lhe dedicou uma obra que haveria de ficar famosa. O problema, portanto, consiste em saber qual o valor que se deve atribuir a uma tal afirmação desconcertante, a qual parece simplesmente equalizar as poucas páginas de Duhem sobre Pascal com as imponentes contribuições de Brunschvicg. Nesse sentido, a estratégia do autor do artigo consiste em não tomar de forma ligeira uma tal afirmação, como se Strowski não tivesse considerado bem as consequências e o alcance daquilo que escrevia, pois a verdade é que ele conhecia não só a obra de Pascal mas também a de Duhem. Ou seja, mais do que ninguém, ele estava perfeitamente à altura de nos comunicar algo de substancial acerca de cada um destes pensadores e de escrever a seu propósito aquilo que ele efectivamente escreveu. Em suma, o presente artigo não tem outra pretensão que não a de justificar essa afirmação aparentemente paradoxal segundo a qual Pierre Duhem foi um verdadeiro pascaliano. (shrink)

This paper tryes understand the state of mind originated by the tension produced by the contardictions of an old society of contrasts an the obsolescence of the structures created by the conquest in the rural areas of the Andes. We also have tryed to relate the colonial peace in the XVIIth century the great crisis of the XVIIlth century which could be considered as the prologue of the independence.

O Kenkon bensetsu (Tratado e Crítica sobre a Terra e os Céus) é a primeira exposição sistemática sobre os princípios astronómicos e cosmológicos ocidentais que se encontra vertida para japonês. Este texto, composto no Japão por volta de 1650, pelo ex-jesuíta Cristovão Ferreira. consiste na versão japonesa de um Tratado de Esfera ocidental. com abundantes comentários e críticas por um erudito confucionista. No Kenkon bensetsu temos. assim, a circunstância rara de poder analisar, lado a lado, alguns conceitos fundamentais do pensamento (...) ocidental e o modo como foram recebidos pelo pensamento japonês do século XVII. Trata-se portanto de um documento de excepcional valor para se avaliar o intercâmbio cultural e científico entre a Europa e o Extremo Oriente nos séculos XVI-XVII, e é um dos testemunhos mais eloquentes e significativos da influência portuguesa no Japão. /// The Kenhon bensetsu (Treatise and Critic on Earth and Heavens) is the first systematic explanation of the astronomical and cosmological western principles that is translated to japanese. This text was composed in Japan about 1650 by the former Jesuit Cristóvão Ferreira, and is a japanese version of a western Sphere Treatise, including many commentaries and critics by a erudite confucionist. Thus, we have in Kenhon hensetsu the rare possibility to be able to analyse, side by side, both some fundamental concepts of western thought and the way they were received by the XVIIth century japanese thought. This is, therefore, a document of an exceptional relevance in order to evaluate both the scientific and the cultural interchange between Europe and the Far East during the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries. It is also one of the most important and significant testimonies of the portugues influence in Japan. (shrink)

On March 17, 2015, Brill was informed that the article by Francisco Gómez Camacho S. J., “Later Scholastics: Spanish Economic Thought in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries,” in _Ancient and Medieval Economic Ideas and Concepts of Social Justice_, ed. S. Todd Lowry and Barry Gordon, pp. 503–561 suffers from serious citation problems and that in some cases the original sources are never mentioned at all. It goes without saying that Brill strongly disapproves of such practices, which represent a serious (...) breach of publication integrity. Brill condemns any violation of the authors’ rights and the copyrights of the publishers, and distances itself from these practices. As a result Brill cannot stand behind the noted material as originally contained in this volume and for these reasons formally retracts the article by Francisco Gómez Camacho and also the volume. The volume will no longer be available in its current form. (shrink)

The topic of the human face is addressed from a biocultural perspective, focusing on the empirical investigation of how the face is represented, perceived, and evaluated in artistic portraits and self-portraits from the XVth to the XVIIth century. To do so, the crucial role played by the human face in social cognition is introduced, starting from development, showing that neonatal facial imitation and face-to-face dyadic interactions provide the grounding elements for the construction of intersubjective bonds. The neuroscience of (...) face perception is concisely presented and discussed, together with the psychophysics of face perception and gaze exploration, introducing the notions of the left visual field advantage and the left gaze bias. The results of experiments on the perception and the emotional and aesthetic rating of artistic portraits and self-portraits are reported, showing that despite participants’ inability to tell self-portraits and portraits apart, greater emotional, communicative-social, and aesthetic ratings were attributed to self-portraits. It is concluded that neuroscience and experimental aesthetics can contribute to better understand the human face, hence to better understand ourselves. (shrink)

Cette étude explore les ruptures et les transformations imposées à la doctrine de la liberté d’indifférence au XVIIe siècle. Celle-ci, d’origine scotiste, mais modifiée par les controverses autour de Molina, s’oppose d’abord aux théories thomistes de la prédétermination physique. L’œuvre de Gibieuf, pour qui l’indifférence décroît proportionnellement à l’évidence du bien, en change radicalement la signification. Désormais, certains thomistes pourront accepter l’indifférence, tandis que le jansénisme en fait un repoussoir. La pensée de Descartes apparaît ainsi comme une stratégie pour faire (...) une place à la liberté sans entrer dans les querelles théologiques : elle repose sur deux indéterminations successives, destinées à la rendre compatible tantôt avec la prédétermination, tantôt avec la science moyenne moliniste. Ainsi, Descartes est le seul philosophe classique à faire une place à la liberté d’indifférence, mais il est aussi celui qui la repousse à une place inférieure, amorçant ainsi un refoulement que consommeront ses successeurs.This study aims at exploring the splits and transformations which the theory of freedom of indifference has undergone during the XVIIth century. This theory has a Scotistic origin, but it was modified by the controversies around Molina. It is primarily directed against the « Thomsitic » theories of physical predetermination. The works of Gibieuf, for whom indifference decreases proportionally to the growth of evidence and goodness, has radically changed its meaning. Hereafter, a few Thomists will agree with the indifference theory, while it serves as a foil to Jansenists. Descartes’ thought appears thus as a strategy to give way to freedom without entering into theological controversies. It is grounded on two successive indeterminations, which make it compatible, once with predetermination, once with the molinist scientia media. Thus, Descartes is the sole classical philosopher who admits some indifference, but he is also the sole to force it back to an inferior position, beginning thus a containment which will be accomplished by his successors. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to present the activities and research methodologies of CTL, a laboratory of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, founded and directed by Lina Bolzoni. CTL’s objective is to investigate the complex structure of relationships between the linguistic and the figurative code in literary tradition, paying particular attention to the XVth, XVIth and XVIIth centuries and using information technologies both as an auxiliary research tool and as a medium for scientific dissemination. Here I shall (...) be discussing the Centre’s digitalization projects, and in particular the project concerned with the Orlando Furioso and its remediation into images. This project, active since 2007, is, I believe, particularly representative of the progressive implementation within CTL of both traditional and computer-related methodologies in the planning of digital collections dedicated to words and images. (shrink)

Francis Bacon critique souvent l’attitude et les pratiques des alchimistes. Pour autant, il ne rejette pas l’alchimie, qui est la chimie de son temps. Non seulement il intègre dans sa philosophie naturelle des aspects essentiels de la pensée paracelsienne, mais surtout il fait de l’alchimie l’une des sciences auxquelles sa nouvelle méthode doit s’appliquer de manière privilégiée en vue de la perfectionner. Comme de nombreux philosophes naturels du XVIIe siècle, il n’hésite pas à développer sa propre conception de la transmutation (...) des métaux.Francis Bacon often criticizes both attitude and practice of the alchemists. Yet he doesn’t, give away alchemy which is the chemistry of his time. Not only does he integrate in his natural philosophy a few major aspects of Paracelsian thought, but first and foremost does he turn alchemy into one of the sciences to which his new method should be applied in a priviledged way in order to improve it. As was the case with quite a few natural philosophers of the XVIIth century, never does he quavers in developing his own conception of the metallic transmutation. (shrink)

L’attribution au jésuite Jean-Pierre Caussade, faite sans recherche suffisamment critique des sources, du célèbre Traité de l’abandon à la Providence divine est remise en cause par l’analyse sérieuse, socio-historique, sémantique et graphologique, de la tradition manuscrite ainsi que par d’autres documents d’archives, dont certains récemment découverts. Ce traité, composé directement sous forme de traité et non de recueil de lettres, semble l’œuvre d’une femme de Lorraine, laïque et cultivée, correspondante de Caussade, en lien avec les monastères de la Visitation. Héritier (...) de la tradition mystique, mais influencé par la philosophie des Lumières, cet ouvrage signale le déclin du modèle de spiritualité « dévote » qui avait cours en Europe au XVIIe siècle.The attribution of the famous Traité de l’abandon à la Providence divine which was made to the Jesuit, Jean-Pierre Caussade, without carrying on any sufficient critical research about the sources, is questioned through the serious, sociohistorical, semantic, graphological analysis of the manuscript tradition as well as the analysis of other documents, some of which have been recently discovered in the Records. This treaty, directly written as a treaty and not as a collection of letters, seems to be the work of a woman living in Lorrain, a laywoman of great culture, a correspondent of J.P. Caussade, linked with the Visitation monasteries. Bearing a legacy of the mystic tradition, but also influenced by the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, this work shows that the model of “devout” spirituality current in Europe in the XVIIth century is on the wane. (shrink)

At the end of the XVIIth century Nicholas Malebranche intervened in the «quietist dispute» in his Treatise on the Love of God (1697). This short treatise presents an anti-quietist standpoint based on the philosopher’s systematic analyses in the fields of theology and of psychology of the feelings and of the will. This article shows how Malebranche takes up the challenge of quietism, the logical heart of which, here reconstituted rigorously, is found in other moral philosophies. The requirement of (...) impartiality produces a paradox when the agent at the same time has to define and take responsibility for his own behaviour, and potentially forget himself due to his requirement of impartiality. Finally, Malebranche avoids this paradox by attributing a very important place to the notion of order, by means of which he fits in with his own analyses on the theme of Providence. (shrink)

The article by Alexander Soldatov contains a new view to solving the problem of autocephaly in the context of the desire of the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine to the attainment of the autocephalous status. Analyzing the canon law, the statements of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church and the historical experience of Orthodoxy, the author comes to the conclusion that there are two types of autocephaly in the Orthodox tradition - old and new one. These types are different in (...) the scope of authority of the church authorities and in the mode of origin. Author's concept is related to the ancient principle Pentarchy, i.e. the primacy in the Universal Orthodoxy five ancient patriarchates that are exclusive carriers autocephaly completeness. Only they, with certain reservations and limitations, have the right to grant autocephalous status of the other local Churches. The Moscow Patriarchate is not a member of Pentarchy, this right it does not have, which removes from the agenda the question of the very possibility of obtaining autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Moscow. In this regard, the article addresses some lesser known aspects of "resubordination" of the Kyiv Metropolis to Moscow Patriarchate from Constantinople in the end of the XVIIth century. (shrink)

The paper shows how relevant the relationship between theoria and the Holy Scriptures is in order to understand Alfonso de la Torre’s Visión Deleytable. The criticism of the Creation by the allegorical character “Entendimiento” agrees with the tradition of the unbelieving “Marrano” Averroism that culminates in XVIIth century Holland, since de la Torre comes across as a philosopher who dispenses with the knowledge revealed by the Scriptures. On the other hand, the objections by “Insight” concur with a philosophy (...) that aims to harmonize reason and Holy Writ, as in the case of Maimonides. This harmonization turns out perfect in the Prophet because he is inspired by the active intellect. Due to the decisive influence of Muslim and Jewish prophetology on Alfonso de la Torre’s work, we state that this text is a very relevant example of philosophical Mudejarism. (shrink)

Beginning from a definition of philosophical discourse which states the necessity of rhetoric meant as the whole of the linguistic devices aiming to persuade the interlocutor of truth and justice, the author points out that Pascal's text would be an outstanding example of such a discourse, while showing, nevertheless, the specificity of the rhetoric he employs. Such a specificity would aim to carry out a complex logic of the secret, concerning chiefly the ackowledgement and identification procedures of the subject of (...) the discourse-enunciation, and its pronominal and nominal markers.The author studies this logic on one hand by starting from the pragmatic patterns developed by the linguistics of enunciation, and on the other taking into account the philosophical, ethical and religious themes of the Jansenist thought in the XVIIth century. The distinction between concealment and secret leads the author to set up the forms of political rhetoric against the actual Pascalian aspects of philosophical rhetoric. Such a logic of the secret, which is the projection of the hidden God teologema into the field of philosophical discourse, would enable us to position as “absent” the subject producing this discourse and thus to transform what he states into a discourse of truth and justice. The very careful examination of the anonymity strategies and mostly of the writing tactics concerning the author's real name (anagram) would seem to confirm this conception of the rhetoric of Pascal's philosophical discourse. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the thesis of the so-called »double truth« within the philosophical and theological milieu of the University of Altdorf during the XVIIth Century. The problem of the »double truth« that aroused in the scholastic discussions on Averroism, receives a particular form in the context of Altdorf. In fact, this unique discursive setting was inspired there by the two main tendencies that characterize that philosophical and theological milieu at that time, namely radical Paduan Aristotelism, and Lutheran (...) orthodoxy. Only apparently opposed, these two positions converge on that point. And the synthesis of these two currents of thought gives rise to an interesting justification of the paradox of the conflict »between true and true«: the development of a theory of different fields and levels of truth. (shrink)

Four propositions relative to the laws of nature in the classical period must be noted. 1. Certain regularities in phenomena had been discovered. 2. A concept of law had emerged. 3. Classical science is characterized by the introduction of the notion of the legality of nature. 4. New uses of the word «law» had appeared in scientific texts. This article is devoted to the analysis of only this last proposition, that is to say to a terminological problem. First we will (...) describe the semantic uses of the word «law» that may have contributed to the constitution of its classical meaning: its specific usage, disciplinary usage, usage in physics, in mathematics, in metaphysics. Second we will analyze the various moments of the diffusion of the word in the sciences in the xviith century. The general thesis defended in the end is that if the term «law» had indeed been used in science with no reference to a law-giving God prior to the xviith century, only this reference, that is, the coming together of its physical and its metaphysical usage, allowed its generalization in the period between the xviith and xviiith centuries. (shrink)

In this article, I try to determine the innovatory moment of Descartes´ Metaphysics, that is, the conceptual work that became the turning point in the most significant philosophical polemics in the subsequent period after the construction of Cartesian system. This turning point is the way Descartes thinks the concept of divine power, rather than the discovery of the cogito or its implications in re-shaping knowledge. Starting from this, Descartes will forge the concepts of transcendence and rationality, so essential in his (...) works and all along the second half of XVIIth century. (shrink)

In this article of 1995, which had been translated into Russian already in 2013, the German Historian Stefan Troebst studied the question of the « breakthrough of the modern age » in Russia, usually attributed to tsar Peter I « the Great », suspecting that the new Era had in fact begun earlier, in the XVIIth century. After a theoretical reflexion about periodization in history, and its application to the history of Russia, he demonstrates that the « threshold (...) year » takes place in 1667, examining this theory from different points of view: state and institutions, international relations, economical policy, religion, culture and fine arts. But this modernization has also caused violent revolts and oppositions during the reign of tsar Alexis Mikhailovitch. (shrink)

This paper is part of an attempt to offer a better understanding of the origins of modern science in the light of the transformations of the concept of representation through XVIth and XVIIth centuries. My aim here is to point out how Francis Bacon had to revise naturalistic and mimetic conceptions of language for drawing up his particular methodical empiricism. In other words, it was not possible to formulate the modern scientific empiricism without advancing a criticism of those naturalistic (...) philosophies of language which had so great success in the XVIth century. To get to this conclusion, I set out here how the results achieved by those who united their empirical study of nature with mimetic and naturalistic conceptions of language were irremediably far from the open and progressive model of scientific knowledge which was an essential element of the Baconian project. (shrink)

The present article aims to analyze Tocqueville’s expectations concerning the triumph of liberty in the social state of equality. This analysis considers the author’s proximity with the germanist ideology developed during the “the quarrel of the two races”. It is intended to relate tocquevillian conception of freedom to Boulainvilliers’ one, which has been formulated in the beginning of XVIIth century and reinterpretated by Mably in the pre-revolutionary context.

Finality, design and purpose have started to be excluded from the language of the natural sciences since the XVIIth century. Darwin succeeded in excluding them from his theory of evolution appealing to a blind and mechanical natural selection. Today, the most usual definitions for the concept of biological function take for granted that functions: 1) are not dependent on a goal; 2) are not dependent on observers, but only on nature; 3) are explicable in causal terms, either with (...) reference to the causal history of the organ (etiological definition), or with reference to its present structure and causal capabilities (dispositional definition). However, we shall see that such presuppositions cannot take into account the normative character of the concept of biological function. We show that a generalization of the concept of scientific objectivity lets us affirm that functions: 1’) are dependent on a goal; 2’) are dependent on both observers and nature; 3’) cannot be reduced to causality, nor break the laws of physics; and yet, 4) are truly objective. (shrink)

this book concerns the debates on the functions of "imagination" (phantasia, imaginatio) in the arousal of passions in the Aristotelian and post-Aristotelian traditions till the XVIIth Century. The simple fact that often a mental representation is followed by pleasure or sorrow and that these emotions can cause actions, became progressively part of a wider theory of animal and human behaviour. In the case of human behaviour, the "force of imagination" became a kind of general justification of all kind (...) of anomic and irregular behaviour and beliefs, including true paranormal conditions of the body. The book recapitulates the main evolution of this way of seeing passions - from Aristotle to Avicenna and his Latin followers - till the age of the authors who see the inner work of "imagination" as a constant danger for human reason, and imagination itself as faculty to control with care for its propension to be the "advocate" of the "inferior part of the soul", such as Gianfrancesco Pico, Juan Luis Vivés, Pierre Charron, Blaise Pascal and a large part of the French Augustinian Moral Philosophers. (shrink)

Os autores jesuítas do Curso Conimbricense têm sido por vezes acusados de não terem ido além de uma monolítica e rígida repetição das teses filosóficas aristotélicas, característica pretensamente distintiva da Companhia de Jesus nos séculos XVI e XVII, cujos membros demonstrariam uma total incapacidade de dialogar com as correntes inovadoras, por exemplo, no campo da filosofia da natureza. O presente estudo, baseado numa análise do Comentário Conimbricense De Caelo, mostra conclusivamente que aquele ponto de vista resulta tanto de uma leitura (...) superficial e simplista do Curso, como de uma sobre simplificação da situação intelectual da Companhia de Jesus, na realidade muito mais aberta e pluralista do que tradicionalmente é admitido. /// Les auteurs Jésuites du Cours Conimbricense ont été parfois accusés de ne pas aller audelà des thèses philosophiques aristotéliciennes, caractéristique que l'ont dit spécifique de la Compagnie de Jésus aux 16e. et 17e. siècles, dont les membres démontreraient une totale incapacité de dialoguer avec les courants innovateurs, par exemple dans le domaine de la philosophie de la nature. L'étude présente, basée sur une analyse du Commentaire "Conimbricensis" De Coelo, montre avec succès que ce point de vue résulte aussi bien d'une lecture superficielle et simpliste du Cours que d'une excessive simplification de la situation intellectuelle de la Compagnie de Jésus, en réalité beaucoup plus ouverte et pluraliste qu'on ne l'admet tradilionellement. /// The Jesuit authors of the Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis have sometimes been accused of having just monolithicly and rigidly repeated the Aristotelian philosophical theses. This, it is argued, is a specific characteristic of the Society of Jesus during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Furthermore, so the accusation continues, the Jesuits were unable to dialogue with the new trends, for instance, in the area of the philosophy of nature. Based on the Jesuit Commentary on the De Coelo, this paper conclusively shows that such views are due both to a rather superficial reading of the Commentarii, and to an over simplification of the intelectual situation of the Society of Jesus, whose members were in fact much more open and pluralistic than it is traditionally believed. (shrink)

Quel sens la philosophie a-t-elle donné à la définition biblique de l’homme comme image de Dieu ? Au cours du XVIIe siècle, que l’on qualifie d’augustinien, la reprise de ce thème scripturaire se fait-elle en fidélité à l’évêque d’Hippone ? Le point de départ de notre analyse sera Descartes et le texte injustement négligé de la Troisième Méditation, tout entier consacré à cette notion de l’homme comme image de Dieu. Nous passerons ensuite à l’étude de Pascal, pour constater que, paradoxalement, (...) c’est l’auteur que l’on qualifie le plus indiscutablement d’augustinien qui donne le moins d’ampleur à cette notion. A travers ces exemples, et en y ajoutant le contre point que représente, par rapport à Pascal, la philosophie de Fénelon, c’est ce que signifie être augustinien à l’Âge classique que nous souhaiterions pouvoir éclaircir.What specific meaning can Philosophy gives to the biblical assertion of human being as an image of God ? During the XVIIth century, which is recognized as an Augustinian one, is the interpretation of this topic made in reference to Augustine ? We will begin our analysis with Descartes and the text of the Third Meditation, unjustly disregarded by scholars, but all dedicated to this notion of human being as imago Dei. We will follow our study with Pascal, and we will have to notice that, paradoxically, he is the author who is considered indisputably as Augustinian but in the same time the one who gives the less extent to this notion of imago Dei. Through these examples, and with the additional consideration of Fénelon’s philosophy, we intend to precise what being an Augustinian means during the early modern Ages. (shrink)

Giovanni Battista Riccioli tem sido uma figura controversa do séc. XVII. especialmente no que se refere à sua posiçào sobre a polémica em torno do heliocentrismo. A sua opinião sobre figuras como Copérnico, Kepler e Galileu. e sobre o decreto dos cardeais que condenou a hipótese heliocêntrica tem sido vista até hoje com suspeita e cepticismo. O mesmo se pode dizer acerca do seu contributo para a ciência moderna. Este artigo procura iluminar a complexidade do trabalho científico e das posições (...) teóricas de Riccioli no contexto cultural de uma mudança paradigmática que tem um grande número de semelhanças com as transformações culturais que se estão a verificar na transição para o século XXI. /// Giovanni Battista Riccioli has been a controversial author of the XVIIth century, especially as to his stand on the polemic over heliocentrism. His mind both on figures such as Copernic, Kepler and Galileo, and on the cardino text of condemnation of the heliocentric hypothesis has been viewd until now withe suspicion and scepticism. The same may be said as to his scientific achievements. This essay aims at sheding some light on the complexity of Riccioli's work and views in the cultural context of a paradigmatic change that has quite a number of similarities with the changes that are taking place at the dawn of the XXIth century. (shrink)

Francis Bacon critique souvent l ' attitude et les pratiques des alchimistes. Pour autant, il ne rejette pas l ' alchimie, qui est la chimie de son temps. Non seulement il intègre dans sa philosophie naturelle des aspects essentiels de la pensée paracelsienne, mais surtout il fait de l ' alchimie l ' une des sciences auxquelles sa nouvelle méthode doit s ' appliquer de manière privilégiée en vue de la perfectionner. Comme de nombreux philosophes naturels du XVIIe siècle, il (...) n ' hésite pas à développer sa propre conception de la transmutation des métaux. Francis Bacon often criticizes both attitude and practice of the alchemists. Yet he doesn ' t, give away alchemy which is the chemistry of his time. Not only does he integrate in his natural philosophy a few major aspects of Paracelsian thought, but first and foremost does he turn alchemy into one of the sciences to which his new method should be applied in apriviledged way in order to improve it. As was the case with quite a few natural philosophers of the XVIIth century, never does he quavers in developing his own conception of the metallic transmutation. (shrink)

« Qu'on s'imagine un corps plein de membres pensants », écrit Pascal (fr. 371), reprenant une métaphore paulinienne (I Cor. 12, 12-26). L'idée est banale au XVIIe siècle. Mais Pascal renouvelle ce thème théologique à partir de sa lecture de Montaigne et cherche ainsi à résoudre le triple problème de la communauté, de la communication et de la communion. Il démystifie la politique en édifiant, à partir de la biologie, une hypothèse que renforce la mystique. « Let us imagine a (...) body full of thinking members », Pascal writes (fr. 371), thereby with reference to a metaphor of St Paul's (I Cor. 12, 12-26). The idea is rather a commonplace one in the XVIIth century. But Pascal renews such a theological theme from his reading of Montaigne and thus tries to solve the three-fold problem... of community, communication and communion. Starting from biology, he demystifies politics by erecting some new hypothesis reinforcing mysticism. (shrink)

The claim of this paper is to present Spinoza’s view on self-esteem and positive reciprocity, which replaces the human being in a monistic psycho-dynamical affective framework, instead of a dualistic pedestal above nature. Without naturalising the human being in an eliminative materialistic view as many recent neuro-scientific conceptions of the mind do, Spinoza finds an important entry point in a panpsychist and holistic perspective, presenting the complexity of the human being, which is not reducible to the psycho-physiological conditions of life. (...) From a panpsychist point of view, qualities and values emerge from the world, in a situation similar to what could be seen in animism, or early childhood psychology, where the original distance between the mind and the exterior thing is reduced ad minima, and both can even interrelate in a confusing manner. Human reality is nevertheless a social reality, it supposes a basis for shared competencies, that we will present as grounded on the one hand of the sustaining character of the essence of the animal-man as will-to-power. Negatively speaking we all share same asocial tendencies and affects. This aspect is not only negative but it is also a will to develop and master the environment, because values have an onto-metaphysical immanent dimension in nature, not because there is an individual bottom-up will to survive, but rather a will to live in harmony with the surrounding world. On the other hand, we shall see that Spinoza understood and described perfectly the power of the mind over the power of the affects, as a co-constituting dimension, which is alienating natural dependencies, leaving an inner space for the objectification of ethical values, not related to mere compensation mechanisms. (shrink)

This interview given by Luc Foisneau to Florent Guénard is the most complete about the editorial project of the Dictionnaire des philosophes français du XVIIe siècle, published in 2015, Classiques Garnier, Paris.