Article ID: CBB553458231

Light and Void. The Philosophical Background of Valerian Magni's Vacuum Experiments (2019)

unapi

The subject of the article is the interpretation of a series of experiments proving the existence of vacuum. This was performed by the Capuchin Valerian Magni in 1647 and described in the treatise Demonstratio ocularis, which is the first printed text referring to successful experiments with vacuum. The work generated great controversy at the time, not only with opponents of void, but also with French scholars, who accused Magni of plagiarism. The article reconstructs both the situation around the work's publication and the reaction to it, with an aim of presenting the philosophical background behind Magni's experiments. Magni understood the experiments as confirmation of his anti-Aristotelianism, and placed them among his metaphysics and natural philosophy, in which he attributes the key epistemological and ontological function to light.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB553458231/

Similar Citations

Article Aaron Spink; (2018)
The Experimental Physics of Jacques Rohault (/isis/citation/CBB768305096/)

Book Harper, William L.; (2011)
Isaac Newton's Scientific Method: Turning Data into Evidence about Gravity and Cosmology (/isis/citation/CBB001221264/)

Chapter Stephen Gaukroger; (2014)
Empiricism as a Development of Experimental Natural Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB971325669/)

Article Manzo, Silvia; (2003)
The Arguments on Void in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Francis Bacon (/isis/citation/CBB000330700/)

Book Ariew, Roger; (2011)
Descartes among the Scholastics (/isis/citation/CBB001500336/)

Article Saito, Fumikazu; (2006)
O vácuo de Pascal versus o ether de Noël: uma controvérsia experimental? (/isis/citation/CBB000850028/)

Article Zubov, Vasilii P.; (2002)
Teoriia pustoty v fizike XVII stoletiia (/isis/citation/CBB000203005/)

Book Jullien, Vincent; (2006)
Philosophie naturelle et géométrie au XVIIe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB000775217/)

Book Schmaltz, Tad M.; (2002)
Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes (/isis/citation/CBB000302043/)

Book Schwarz, Astrid E.; (2014)
Experiments in Practice (/isis/citation/CBB001422490/)

Book Susan James; (2021)
Life and Death in Early Modern Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB596785213/)

Article Blank, Andreas; (2013)
Fortunio Liceti on Mind, Light, and Immaterial Extension (/isis/citation/CBB001320399/)

Article Blank, Andreas; (2013)
Fortunio Liceti on Mind, Light, and Immaterial Extension (/isis/citation/CBB001213905/)

Book David Carroll Simon; (2018)
Light without Heat: The Observational Mood from Bacon to Milton (/isis/citation/CBB010485781/)

Article Ben-Chaim, Michael; (2001)
The discovery of natural goods: Newton's vocation as an “experimental philosopher” (/isis/citation/CBB000100556/)

Article Zemplén, Gábor Á.; Demeter, Tamás; (2010)
Being Charitable to Scientific Controversies: On the Demonstrativity of Newton's Experimentum Crucis (/isis/citation/CBB001221445/)

Chapter Zimmermann, Albert; (2006)
Erinnerung an Lehren mittelalterlicher Denker über Grundsätze der Naturforschung (/isis/citation/CBB001020300/)

Authors & Contributors
Blank, Andreas
Simon, David Carroll
Spink, Aaron
Zubov, Vasilii P.
Zimmermann, Albert
Zemplén, Gábor Á.
Concepts
Experiments and experimentation
Physics
Natural philosophy
Light
Metaphysics
Vacuum; emptiness; nothingness
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
16th century
Early modern
Medieval
Places
Italy
Padua (Italy)
France
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment