Thesis ID: CBB001561187

The Unity of Science in Early-Modern Philosophy: Subalternation, Metaphysics and the Geometrical Manner in Scholasticism, Galileo and Descartes (2008)

unapi

Biener, Zvi (Author)


University of Pittsburgh


Publication Date: 2008
Physical Details: 183 pp.
Language: English

The project of constructing a complete system of knowledge--a system capable of integrating all that is and could possibly be known--was common to many early-modern philosophers and was championed with particular alacrity by René Descartes. The inspiration for this project often came from mathematics in general and from geometry in particular: Just as propositions were ordered in a geometrical demonstration, the argument went, so should propositions be ordered in an overall system of knowledge. Science, it was thought, had to proceed more geometrico. I offer a new interpretation of 'science more geometrico ' based on an analysis of the explanatory forms used in certain branches of geometry. These branches were optics, astronomy, and mechanics; the so-called subalternate, subordinate, or mixed-mathematical sciences. In Part I, I investigate the nature of the mixed-mathematical sciences according to Aristotle and some 'liberal Jesuit' scholastic-Aristotelians. In Part II, I analyze the metaphysics and physics of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy (1644, 1647) in light of the findings of Part I and an example from Galileo. I conclude by arguing that we must broaden our understanding of the early-modern conception of 'science more geometrico ' to include concepts taken from the mixed-mathematical sciences. These render the geometrical manner more flexible than previously thought.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/07 (2009). Pub. no. AAT 3323237.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561187/

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Authors & Contributors
Domski, Mary
Rodríguez Hurtado, Ricardo
Echeverría Ezponda, Javier
Romiti, Andrew Joseph
Lo, Melissa
Schuster, John
Concepts
Mathematics
Geometry
Mathematics and its relationship to science
Physics
Philosophy
Natural philosophy
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
Ancient
20th century
Renaissance
18th century
Places
Dresden (Germany)
England
Italy
France
Institutions
Staatlicher Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Dresden, Germany)
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