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The mathematization of nature in Descartes and the first CartesiansIn 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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8La Logique de Port-Royal, les premiers cartésiens et la scolastique tardiveArchives de Philosophie 78 (1): 29-48. 2015.Résumé Dans quelle mesure la Logique de Port-Royal peut-elle être considérée comme une logique cartésienne? Et dans quelle mesure l’ Art de penser diffère-t-il des logiques antérieures? Telles sont les deux questions, étroitement liées l’une à l’autre, auxquelles je souhaite répondre dans cette étude en procédant à une série de comparaisons, d’une part avec ce que Descartes appelait sa logique, d’autre part avec ce que les cartésiens de la première génération entendaient par logique cartésienne,…Read more
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8Revolution and ContinuityCUA Press. 2018.This volume presents new work in history and historiography to the increasingly broad audience for studies of the history and philosophy of science. These essays are linked by a concern to understand the context of early modern science in its own context.
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26The Intersections of Knowledge: Hobbes, Mersenne, DescartesHobbes Studies 36 (2): 197-212. 2023.Gregorio Baldin’s book, La croisée des savoirs, concerns the intellectual relations among Hobbes, Mersenne, and Descartes. The study is limited to the time between 1634 and 1648, starting when Hobbes first met Mersenne in Paris and ending when Mersenne died. It covers three main topics. Part i is devoted to the relations maintained by Hobbes with the circle of Mersenne during 1634–1636, which Baldin thinks are essential for the development of Hobbes’ scientific thought. Part ii develops the them…Read more
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52Descartes' Meditations: Background Source Materials (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1998.No single text could be considered more important in the history of philosophy than Descartes' Meditations. This unique collection of background material to this magisterial philosophical text has been translated from the original French and Latin. The texts gathered here illustrate the kinds of principles, assumptions, and philosophical methods that were commonplace when Descartes was growing up. The selections are from: Francisco Sanches, Christopher Clavius, Pierre de la Ramee, Francisco Suár…Read more
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17Historical Dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian PhilosophyScarecrow Press. 2003.This is a dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy, primarily covering philosophy in the 17th century, with a chronology and biography of Descartes's life and times and a bibliography of primary and secondary works related to Descartes and to Cartesians.
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11Duhem on Maxwell: A Case-Study in the Interrelations of History of Science and Philosophy of SciencePSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986 (1): 145-156. 1986.Since the revival of historicist philosophy of science in the 1960s many philosophers have acknowledged a debt to Duhem. But Duhem’s opinions are imperfectly understood and, as McMullin has shown in his (1970) and (1979), there are many strands in the current revival of historicism. We consider here Duhem’s views on the role of history in the appraisal of scientific theories. However, there is no single text offering Duhem’s views on the subject; rather, they are revealed during their applicatio…Read more
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4The Meditations and the Objections and RepliesIn Stephen Gaukroger (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Descartes' Meditations, Blackwell. 2006.
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What Descartes read : his intellectual backgroundIn Steven Nadler, Tad M. Schmaltz & Delphine Antoine-Mahut (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism, Oxford University Press. 2019.
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13Descartes in Seventeenth-century EnglandBurns & Oates. 2002.These volumes contain Descartes's main works in their first English translations, as well as critiques of his philosophy both in English and translated from other languages. Other works in the set bring together writings by Cartesians in English translation, works by English thinkers influenced by Descartes, and the standard seventeenth-century Descartes biographies in their English translations. As a whole, this set provides a group of rare and largely inaccessible works vital to understanding …Read more
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28A Metaphysical Element in Descartes and the First Cartesians: Non-Univocal PredicationThe European Legacy 27 (3-4): 227-238. 2022.Descartes’ physics is dependent on his metaphysics, which is to say, on knowledge of the nature of God and of the human soul. This is clear throughout Descartes’ work, but it is especially so in th...
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36The Nature of Cartesian LogicPerspectives on Science 29 (3): 275-291. 2021.I argue that Descartes and the Cartesians are likely in agreement that logic is an ars cogitandi whose aim is to perfect the ingenium by the exercise of its operations: ideating, judging, discoursing, and ordering. We can see that these elements are the underpinning of both the Regulae and the Discourse on Method, and thus, like Adrien Baillet and others in the seventeenth century, we can understand these two works as embodying Descartes’ “logic,” despite Descartes’ notorious anti-logic Renaissa…Read more
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Descartes, the First Cartesians, and LogicIn Daniel Garber & Steven Nadler (eds.), Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume 3, Clarendon Press. 2006.
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4Le cogito en 1634-1635Cahiers de Philosophie de L’Université de Caen 50 9-24. 2013.Je m’intéresse au cogito au XVIIe siècle avant sa formulation officielle par Descartes. Les raisonnements avancés par Jean de Silhon, correspondant de Descartes, et par le Jésuite Antoine Sirmond, publiés en 1634-1635, peuvent éclairer le cogito cartésien et l’atmosphère générale de l’augustinisme au XVIIe siècle. Cela peut nous permettre de mieux comprendre en quoi consiste la contribution de Descartes au cogito et d’interpréter ses critiques ultérieures.
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Descartes, the First Cartesians, and LogicOxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 3 241-260. 2006.
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4Descartes and Leibniz as Readers of Suárez: Theory of Distinctions and Principle of IndividuationIn Benjamin Hill & Henrik Lagerlund (eds.), The Philosophy of Francisco Surez, Oxford University Press. 2012.This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the end.
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10From Myth to the Modern Mind: A Study of the Origins and Growth of Scientific Thought Volume 1: Animism to Archimedes (review)Review of Metaphysics 40 (4): 792-792. 1987.This volume appears to be the product of much effort, the culmination of more than twenty years of study--though it could not have been "written before the collapse of the research program of the logical positivists," as the back cover proclaims. Schlagel's introduction is more precise: the volume adopts an anti-positivistic approach to understanding science precisely because of the failure of the research program of the positivists and the success of the historicists. In fact, in opposition to …Read more
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10Philosophical Essays (edited book)Hackett. 1695.Features Leibniz's writings including letters, published papers, and fragments on a variety of philosophical, religious, mathematical, and scientific questions.
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14Comments on John Schuster and Frederic de Buzon concerning Physico–Mathematics and Mathesis in DescartesJournal of Early Modern Studies 7 (1): 175-186. 2018.
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27Descartes and the First Cartesians RevisitedPerspectives on Science 26 (5): 599-617. 2018.I am grateful that a set of fine scholars would be willing to reflect upon and write about Descartes and the First Cartesians. Their efforts are greatly appreciated and, on the whole, their observations are sound. It should be evident that I do not consider the work to be the final word on the subject of Descartes and Cartesians, that is, something exhaustive of it or complete for any of its topics. In fact, every time I reconsider an issue from my book, I find that there is more to be said even…Read more
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86G. W. Leibniz Philosophical Essays (edited book)Hackett. 1989.Although Leibniz's writing forms an enormous corpus, no single work stands as a canonical expression of his whole philosophy. In addition, the wide range of Leibniz's work--letters, published papers, and fragments on a variety of philosophical, religious, mathematical, and scientific questions over a fifty-year period--heightens the challenge of preparing an edition of his writings in English translation from the French and Latin.
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47The Art of Philosophy: Visual Thinking in Europe from the late Renaissance to the Early Enlightenment, by Susanna BergerMind 127 (508): 1219-1229. 2018.© Mind Association 2018Some time ago I was at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris investigating the teaching of philosophy during Descartes’ time. Fine monographs had already been published on the various regimens and practices at Descartes’ college at La Flèche, and Jesuit institutions in general, as well as the collegiate curriculum in seventeenth-century France. But as interested as I was in the form of the teaching—how philosophy was taught, where, and when—I was more interested in its conte…Read more
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5Readings in Modern Philosophy, Volume 2: Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Associated Texts (edited book)Hackett Publishing Company. 2000.This anthology offers the key works of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in their entirety or in substantial selections, along with a rich selection of associated texts by other leading thinkers of the period.
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60Leibniz and Clarke: CorrespondenceHackett Publishing Company. 2000.For this new edition, Roger Ariew has adapted Samuel Clarke's edition of 1717, modernizing it to reflect contemporary English usage. Ariew's introduction places the correspondence in historical context and discusses the vibrant philosophical climate of the times. Appendices provide those selections from the works of Newton that Clarke frequently refers to in the correspondence. A bibliography is also included.
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52Leibniz On the Unicorn and Various Other CuriositiesEarly Science and Medicine 3 (4): 267-288. 1998.I discuss some of Leibniz's pronouncements about fringe phenomena__various monsters; talking dogs; genies and prophets; unicorns, glossopetrae, and other games of nature__in order to understand better Leibniz's views on science and the role these curiosities play in his plans for scientific academies and societies. However, given that Leibniz's sincerity has been called into question in twentieth-century secondary literature, I begin with a few historiographical remarks so as to situate these pr…Read more
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Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |