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7Changing conceptions of mathematics and infinity in Giordano Bruno’s vernacular and Latin worksScience in Context 33 (3): 251-271. 2020.ArgumentThe purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of Giordano Bruno’s conception of mathematics. Specifically, it intends to highlight two aspects of this conception that have been neglected in previous studies. First, Bruno’s conception of mathematics changed over time and in parallel with another concept that was central to his thought: the concept of infinity. Specifically, Bruno undertook a reform of mathematics in order to accommodate the concept of the infinitely small or “minimu…Read more
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12Introduction: The Idiosyncratic Nature of Renaissance MathematicsPerspectives on Science 30 (3): 353-357. 2022.Ever since its foundation in 1540, the Society of Jesus had had one mission—to restore order where Luther, Calvin and the other instigators of the Reformation had brought chaos. To stop the hemorrhage of believers, the Jesuits needed to form a united front. No signs of internal disagreement could to be shown to the outside world, lest the congregation lose its credibility. But in 1570s two prominent Jesuits, Cristophorus Clavius and Benito Perera, had engaged in a bitter controversy. The issue a…Read more
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150Richard J. Oosterhoff, Making Mathematical Culture: University and Print in the Circle of Lefèvre d'Etaples, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 304. ISBN 978-0-1988-2352-0. £65.00 (hardback) (review)British Journal for the History of Science 53 (2): 282-283. 2020.
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321New theories for new instruments: Fabrizio Mordente's proportional compass and the genesis of Giordano Bruno's atomist geometryStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 76 60-68. 2019.The aim of this article is to shed light on an understudied aspect of Giordano Bruno's intellectual biography, namely, his career as a mathematical practitioner. Early interpreters, especially, have criticized Bruno's mathematics for being “outdated” or too “concrete”. However, thanks to developments in the study of early modern mathematics and the rediscovery of Bruno's first mathematical writings (four dialogues on Fabrizio's Mordente proportional compass), we are in a position to better under…Read more
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424Giordano Bruno and Bonaventura Cavalieri's theories of indivisibles: a case of shared knowledgeIntellectual History Review 28 (4): 461-476. 2018.At the turn of the seventeenth century, Bruno and Cavalieri independently developed two theories, central to which was the concept of the geometrical indivisible. The introduction of indivisibles had significant implications for geometry – especially in the case of Cavalieri, for whom indivisibles provided a forerunner of the calculus. But how did this event occur? What can we learn from the fact that two theories of indivisibles arose at about the same time? These are the questions addressed in…Read more
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39The Networked Origins of Cartesian Philosophy and ScienceHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 12 (1): 97-120. 2022.Most studies of René Descartes’s legacy have focused on the novelty of his ideas, but little has been done to uncover the conditions that allowed these ideas to spread. Seventeenth-century Europe was already a small world—it presented a high degree of connectedness with a few brokers bridging otherwise disparate regions. A communication network known as the Republic of Letters enabled scholars to trade ideas—including Descartes’s—by means of correspondence. This article offers an analysis—both q…Read more
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
History of Western Philosophy |
René Descartes |