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The Composition of Space, Time and Matter According to Isaac Newton and John KeillIn Daniel Garber & Sophie Roux (eds.), The Mechaniziation of Natural Philosophy, Springer. pp. 117-142. 2012.
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Reading the book of nature : the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of Galileo's mathematical realismIn Geoffrey Gorham (ed.), The Language of Nature: Reassessing the Mathematization of Natural Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, University of Minnesota Press. 2016.
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Thought experiments: methodological and historical perspectives (edited book)Brill, Leiden. forthcoming.
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Pierre Gassendi and the new science of motionIn Delphine Bellis, Daniel Garber & Carla Rita Palmerino (eds.), Pierre Gassendi: Humanism, Science, and the Birth of Modern Philosophy, Routledge. 2018.
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17Pierre Gassendi: Humanism, Science, and the Birth of Modern Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2018.Pierre Gassendi was a major figure in seventeenth-century philosophy whose philosophical and scientific works contributed to shaping Western intellectual identity. Among "new philosophers", he was considered Descartes’ main rival, and he belonged to the first rank of those attempting to carve out an alternative to Aristotelian philosophy. Given the importance of Gassendi for the history of science and philosophy, it is surprising to see that he has been largely ignored in the Anglophone world. T…Read more
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11Space, Imagination and the Cosmos, from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period: IntroductionIn Carla Palmerino, Delphine Bellis & Frederik Bakker (eds.), Space, Imagination and the Cosmos From Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, Springer Verlag. pp. 1-9. 2018.In this introduction, we explain our choice to approach the topic of space from a cosmological perspective, that is, by studying the conceptions of space that were implicitly or explicitly entailed by ancient, medieval and early modern representations of the cosmos, and the role that imagination played in those conceptions. We compare our approach with those of Alexandre Koyré and Edward Grant, and we present the two important issues this book intends to shed light on, namely the continuity and …Read more
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32Space, Imagination and the Cosmos From Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2018.This volume provides a much needed, historically accurate narrative of the development of theories of space up to the beginning of the eighteenth century. It studies conceptions of space that were implicitly or explicitly entailed by ancient, medieval and early modern representations of the cosmos. The authors reassess Alexandre Koyré’s groundbreaking work From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe and they trace the permanence of arguments to be found throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. …Read more
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37Motion to the Center or Motion to the Whole? Plutarch’s Views on Gravity and Their Influence on GalileoIsis 111 (2): 217-238. 2020.While it is well known that Plutarch’s De facie in orbe lunae was a major source of inspiration for Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius, its influence on his Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, and especially on his views on gravity, has not been sufficiently explored. This essay offers the first systematic comparison of Plutarch’s and Galileo’s accounts of gravity by focusing on four themes: the thought experiment of a stone falling in a tunnel passing through the center of the Earth; t…Read more
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Space, Imagination and the Cosmos in the Leibniz-Clarke CorrespondenceIn Carla Palmerino, Delphine Bellis & Frederik Bakker (eds.), Space, Imagination and the Cosmos From Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, Springer Verlag. 2018.
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12Aggregating Speeds and Scaling Motions: A Response to Norton and RobertsCentaurus 54 (2): 165-176. 2012.
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25Discussing What Would Happen: The Role of Thought Experiments in Galileo’s DialoguesPhilosophy of Science 85 (5): 906-918. 2018.Thought experiments play an important epistemic, rhetorical and didactic function in Galileo’s dialogues. In some cases, Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio agree about what would happen in an imaginary scenario and try to understand whether the predicted outcome is compatible with their respective theoretical assumptions. There are, however, also situations in which the predictions of the three interlocutors turn out to be theory-laden. Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio not only disagree about what w…Read more
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40The Geometrization of Motion: Galileo’s Triangle of Speed and its Various TransformationsEarly Science and Medicine 15 (4-5): 410-447. 2010.This article analyzes Galileo's mathematization of motion, focusing in particular on his use of geometrical diagrams. It argues that Galileo regarded his diagrams of acceleration not just as a complement to his mathematical demonstrations, but as a powerful heuristic tool. Galileo probably abandoned the wrong assumption of the proportionality between the degree of velocity and the space traversed in accelerated motion when he realized that it was impossible, on the basis of that hypothesis, to b…Read more
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28Geschichte des Kontinuumproblems or Notes on Fromondus’s Labyrinthus?The Leibniz Review 26 63-98. 2016.In 1996, Manuel Luna Alcoba published a transcription of LH XXXVII, IV, 57 r°-58v°, a manuscript written by Leibniz after 1693 and containing historical and systematic reflections on the problem of the continuum. The present article aims to show that the manuscript, to which Luna Alcoba attributed the title Geschichte des Kontinuumproblems, consists mainly of excerpts from, paraphrases of, and comments on the Labyrinthus sive de compositione continui (1631), a book by the Louvain philosopher and…Read more
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87The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter in Seventeenth-century Natural PhilosophyEarly Science and Medicine 16 (4): 296-330. 2011.This 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…Read more
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41Experiments, mathematics, physical causes: How mersenne came to doubt the validity of Galileo's law of free fallPerspectives on Science 18 (1). 2010.In the ten years following the publication of Galileo Galilei's Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze , the new science of motion was intensely debated in Italy, France and northern Europe. Although Galileo's theories were interpreted and reworked in a variety of ways, it is possible to identify some crucial issues on which the attention of natural philosophers converged, namely the possibility of complementing Galileo's theory of natural acceleration with a physical e…Read more
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7Honoré Fabri and the Concept of Impetus: A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks (review)Isis 104 162-163. 2013.
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10Consequentia mirabilis: Una regola logica tra matematica e filosofia by Fabio Bellissima; Paolo Pagli (review)Isis 89 715-716. 1998.
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31Thinking with Objects. The Transformation of Mechanics in the Seventeenth CenturyEarly Science and Medicine 13 (2): 212-214. 2008.
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70Gassendi's reintrepretation of the galilean theory of tidesPerspectives on Science 12 (2): 212-237. 2004.: In the concluding pages of his Epistolae duae de motu impresso a motore translato (1642), Pierre Gassendi provides a brief summary of the explanation of the tides found in Galileo's Dialogue over the Two Chief World Systems (1632). A comparison between the two texts reveals, however, that Gassendi surreptitiously modifies Galileo's theory in some crucial points in the vain hope of rendering it more compatible with the observed phenomena. But why did Gassendi not acknowledge his departures from…Read more
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19Consequentia mirabilis: Una regola logica tra matematica e filosofia. Fabio Bellissima, Paolo PagliIsis 89 (4): 715-716. 1998.
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36Catholic Physics. Jesuit Natural Philosophy in Early Modern GermanyEarly Science and Medicine 12 (1): 100-102. 2007.
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1Galileo's use of medieval thought experimentsIn Katerina Ierodiakonou & Sophie Roux (eds.), Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts, Brill. 2011.
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21Infinite Degrees of Speed Marin Mersenne and the Debate Over Galileo's Law of Free FallEarly Science and Medicine 4 (4): 269-328. 1999.This article analyzes the evolution of Mersenne's views concerning the validity of Galileo's theory of acceleration. After publishing, in 1634, a treatise designed to present empirical evidence in favor of Galileo's odd-number law, Mersenne developed over the years the feeling that only the elaboration of a physical proof could provide sufficient confirmation of its validity. In the present article, I try to show that at the center of Mersenne's worries stood Galileo's assumption that a falling …Read more
Areas of Interest
17th/18th Century Philosophy |