•  108
    René Descartes is neither a Conceptualist nor a Platonist when it comes to the ontological status of the eternal truths and essences of mathematics but articulates a view derived from Proclus. There are several advantages to interpreting Descartes’ texts in light of Proclus’ view of universals and philosophy of mathematics. Key passages that, on standard readings, are in conflict are reconciled if we read Descartes as appropriating Proclus’ threefold distinction among universals. Specifically, p…Read more
  •  100
    Concurrence or divergence? Reconciling Descartes's physics with his metaphysics
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1): 49-78. 2007.
    : This paper interprets Descartes's use of the Scholastic doctrine of divine concurrence in light of contemporaneous sources, and argues against two prevailing occasionalist interpretations. On the first occasionalist reading God's concurrence or cooperation with natural causes is always mediate (i.e., concurrence reduces to God's continual recreation of substances). The second reading restricts God's immediate concurrence to his co-action with minds. This paper shows that Descartes's metaphysic…Read more
  •  71
    The problem of secondary causation in Descartes: A response to Des chene
    Perspectives on Science 8 (2): 93-118. 2000.
    : In this paper I address the vexed question of secondary causation in René Descartes' physics, and examine several influential interpretations, especially the one recently proposed by Dennis Des Chene. I argue that interpreters who regard Cartesian bodies as real secondary causes, on the grounds that the modes of body include real forces, contradict Descartes' account of modes. On the other hand, those who deny that Descartes affirms secondary causation, on the grounds that forces cannot be mod…Read more
  •  69
    Hobbes’s and Zabarella’s Methods: A Missing Link
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 52 (3): 461-485. 2014.
    early modern philosophers commonly appeal to a mathematical method to demonstrate their philosophical claims. Since such claims are not always followed by what we would recognize as mathematical proofs, they are often dismissed as mere rhetoric. René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and Benedict de Spinoza are perhaps the most well-known early modern philosophers who fall into this category. It is a matter of dispute whether the ordo geometricus amounts to more than a method of presentation in Spinoza’…Read more
  •  60
    The Emergence of Scientific Culture: Science and the Shaping of Modernity, 1210–1685 (review) (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (4): 640-641. 2008.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Emergence of Scientific Culture: Science and the Shaping of Modernity, 1210–1685Helen HattabStephen Gaukroger. The Emergence of Scientific Culture: Science and the Shaping of Modernity, 1210–1685. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007. Pp. ix + 563. Cloth, $65.00.The sheer variety of both cognitive and non-cognitive contributions to the emergence of a scientific culture in the West and the complex relations to pre-modern deve…Read more
  •  44
    The Mechanical Philosophy
    In Desmond M. Clarke & Catherine Wilson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, Oxford University Press. 2011.
    This article analyses the underlying interpretation of the natural world as mechanical during the early modern period. It describes the so-called mechanical ideal and discusses three cases involving important interpretations of the philosophical implications of this ideal. It suggests that the mechanical ideal raised new problems in different contexts and inspired antagonistic views of its philosophical implications in proponents who operated within the same intellectual context. It also discuss…Read more
  •  40
    Suárez and Descartes
    Studia Neoaristotelica 8 (2): 143-162. 2011.
    In hac dissertatione primo ostendo Cartesii “argumentum a priori” contra formas substantiales proprie intelligendum esse ex definitione formae substantialis, quam F. Suarez proposuit, et ex ipsius argumentis a priori pro ea. Hoc quidem argumentum Cartesianum non nisi polemicam vim habere videtur, nam Cartesius potius ex superioritate explanationum mechanicarum a se percepta formas substantiales impugnavit. Tamen ipsum factum, Cartesium scil. in doctrinamSuarezianam de forma substantiali incurris…Read more
  •  36
    _ Source: _Page Count 46 René Descartes is neither a Conceptualist nor a Platonist when it comes to the ontological status of the eternal truths and essences of mathematics but articulates a view derived from Proclus. There are several advantages to interpreting Descartes’ texts in light of Proclus’ view of universals and philosophy of mathematics. Key passages that, on standard readings, are in conflict are reconciled if we read Descartes as appropriating Proclus’ threefold distinction among un…Read more
  •  28
    Suárez and Descartes
    Studia Neoaristotelica 8 (2): 143-162. 2011.
    In hac dissertatione primo ostendo Cartesii “argumentum a priori” contra formas substantiales proprie intelligendum esse ex definitione formae substantialis, quam F. Suarez proposuit, et ex ipsius argumentis a priori pro ea. Hoc quidem argumentum Cartesianum non nisi polemicam vim habere videtur, nam Cartesius potius ex superioritate explanationum mechanicarum a se percepta formas substantiales impugnavit. Tamen ipsum factum, Cartesium scil. in doctrinamSuarezianam de forma substantiali incurris…Read more
  •  26
    Descartes on Forms and Mechanisms
    Cambridge University Press. 2009.
    The modern view of causation can be traced back to the mechanistic science of Descartes, whose rejection of Aristotelian physics, with its concept of substantial forms, in favor of mechanical explanations was a turning-point in the history of philosophy. However the reasoning which led Descartes and other early moderns in this direction is not well understood. This book traces Descartes' groundbreaking theory of scientific explanation back to the mathematical demonstrations of Aristotelian mecha…Read more
  •  21
    Review of Peter Machamer, J.e. McGuire, Descartes's Changing Mind (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2010 (10). 2010.
  •  21
    Aristotelianism and Atomism Combined: Gorlaeus on Knowledge of Universals
    Perspectives on Science 24 (3): 285-304. 2016.
    The atomist philosopher, David Gorlaeus was a student of theology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands when he died in 1612 at the age of 21. We know little about his short life, but two works by him, Exercitationes Philosophicae and Idea Physicae, survived and were published posthumously in 1620 and 1651 respectively. They contain the intriguing but often underdeveloped views of a budding philosopher whose ideas might have been completely forgotten but for two later perceptions of his…Read more
  •  12
    Early Modern Philosophers and the Renaissance Legacy ed. by Cecilia Muratori, and Gianni Paganini
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 55 (4): 736-737. 2017.
    Early Modern Philosophers and the Renaissance Legacy is one of several volumes published in this decade that reflect a revival of interest in Renaissance philosophy. As a welcome corrective to the common practice of establishing continuities between the two periods by emphasizing how Renaissance philosophies anticipate modern ones, this volume aims to "shift the weight from the problem of assessing the 'modernity' of Renaissance philosophers to the creation of a space of interaction between Rena…Read more
  •  10
    Cartesian truth
    Philosophical Review 109 (4): 642-645. 2000.
    Cartesian Truth depicts René Descartes as grappling with the same problem confronting contemporary philosophers: the reconciliation of commonsense realism with a scientific view of the world. Vinci traces modern analytic epistemology back to Descartes, characterizing it as a set of tools Descartes and his successors developed to solve the problems of fusing the manifest and scientific images. Vinci is dissatisfied with contemporary solutions and sees better answers in Descartes’s epistemology.
  •  8
    Cartesian Truth
    Philosophical Review 109 (4): 642. 2000.
    Cartesian Truth depicts René Descartes as grappling with the same problem confronting contemporary philosophers: the reconciliation of commonsense realism with a scientific view of the world. Vinci traces modern analytic epistemology back to Descartes, characterizing it as a set of tools Descartes and his successors developed to solve the problems of fusing the manifest and scientific images. Vinci is dissatisfied with contemporary solutions and sees better answers in Descartes’s epistemology.
  •  8
    It is often thought that Aristotelian hylomorphism was undermined in the early modern era by the external challenges that alternative atomist and corpuscularian matter theories posed. This narrative neglects the fact that hylomorphism was not one homogeneous theory but a fruitful, adaptable framework that enabled scholastic Aristotelianism to continuously transform itself from within and resolve new natural philosophical, metaphysical, and theological problems. I focus on the period of the Count…Read more
  •  6
    Hobbes's Unified Method for Scientia
    In Marcus P. Adams (ed.), A Companion to Hobbes, Wiley. 2021.
    This chapter examines the role and nature of Thomas Hobbes's method for science in its historical context to clarify how his theoretical and practical philosophies are unified. Hobbes's politics is commonly studied independently of his method and science. Civil philosophy, for Hobbes, primarily concerns the commonwealth and the duties plus rights of its subjects. Methodical philosophizing produces scientia, i.e., valid causal syllogisms, in the shortest way possible. Hobbes's use of mechanical a…Read more
  •  3
    Suárez’s Last Stand for the Substantial Form
    In Benjamin Hill & Henrik Lagerlund (eds.), The Philosophy of Francisco Surez, Oxford University Press. 2012.
    In this essay Suárez’s defense of the scholastic doctrine of substantial forms is critically examined. Suárez’s innovative solution to the problem of the eduction of form from matter during substantial change is shown to rely on a reversal of the traditional priorities of the Thomists. Because Suárez made the substantial form in some sense physical rather than metaphysical, he was able to solve the problem of eduction. But in solving this he did irreparable damage to the Scholastic account of sc…Read more
  •  2
    This dissertation presents a new interpretation of Rene Descartes' views on body/body causation by examining them within their historical context. Although Descartes gives the impression that his views constitute a complete break with those of his predecessors, he draws on both Scholastic Aristotelian concepts of the efficient cause and existing anti-Aristotelian views. ;The combination of Aristotelian and anti-Aristotelian elements in Descartes' theory of causation creates a tension in his clai…Read more
  •  1
    Suárez's last stand for the substantial form
    In Benjamin Hill & Henrik Lagerlund (eds.), The Philosophy of Francisco Suárez, Oxford University Press. 2012.
  • Book Reviews (review)
    Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 10 (1): 329-332. 2020.
  • Descartes's mechanical but not mechanistic physics
    In Steven Nadler, Tad M. Schmaltz & Delphine Antoine-Mahut (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism, Oxford University Press. 2019.
  • ROZEMOND, M.-Descartes's Dualism
    Philosophical Books 41 (2): 106-107. 2000.
  • Early modern roots of the philosophical concept of a law of nature
    In Walter R. Ott & Lydia Patton (eds.), Laws of Nature, Oxford University Press. 2018.