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This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from Explore Bristol Research
This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Jenkins, Clare Helen Elizabeth Title: Jansenism as literature : a study into the influence of Augustinian theology on seventeenth-century French literature General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Jansenism as Literature: A Study into the Influence of Augustinian Theology on Seventeenth-Century French Literature Clare Helen Elizabeth Jenkins A Dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts. -
On the Infinite in Leibniz's Philosophy
On the Infinite in Leibniz's Philosophy Elad Lison Interdisciplinary Studies Unit Science, Technology and Society Ph.D. Thesis Submitted to the Senate of Bar-Ilan University Ramat-Gan, Israel August 2010 This work was carried out under the supervision of Dr. Ohad Nachtomy (Department of Philosophy), Bar-Ilan University. Contents א.……………………………….…………………………………………Hebrew Abstract Prologue…………………………………………………………...………………………1 Part A: Historic Survey Methodological Introduction…………………………………………………………..15 1. Aristotle: Potential Infinite………………………………………………………….16 2. Thomas Aquinas: God and the Infinite………………………………………..…….27 3. William of Ockham: Syncategorematic and Actual Infinite……………………..….32 4. Rabbi Abraham Cohen Herrera: Between Absolute Unity and Unbounded Multitude………………………………………………………………………..….42 5. Galileo Galilei: Continuum Constructed from Infinite Zero's………………………49 6. René Descartes: Infinite as Indefinite…………………………………………….…58 7. Pierre Gassendi: Rejection of the Infinite…………………………………………...69 8. Baruch Spinoza: Infinite Unity…………………………………………………...…73 9. General Background: Leibniz and the History of the Infinite……………………....81 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….…94 Part B: Mathematics Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….99 1. 'De Arte Combinatoria' as a Formal Basis for Thought: Retrospective on Leibniz's 1666 Dissertation………………………………………………………………....102 2. Leibniz and the Infinitesimal Calculus……………………………………….……111 2.1. Mathematical Background: Mathematical Works in 16th-17th Centuries…..111 2.2. Leibniz's Mathematical Development…………………………………….…127 -
The Search for the Historical Gassendi
The Search for the Historical Gassendi Margaret J. Osler University of Calgary Writing about the history of science and the history of philosophy in- volves assumptions about the role of context and about the relationships between past and present ideas. Some historians emphasize the context, concentrating on the intellectual, personal, and social factors that affect the way earlier thinkers have approached their subject. Analytic philoso- phers take a critical approach, considering the logic and merit of the arguments of past thinkers almost as though they are engaging in contem- porary debates. Some philosophers use the ideas of historical ªgures to support their own philosophical agendas. Scholarly studies of the French natural philosopher Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) exemplify many of these approaches. What, then, is context? At the most basic level, the context is the text itself. The most acontextual scholars examine only snippets of the text. In- terested in ideas about necessity, arguments for the existence of God, or ideas about matter and gravity, they mine the writings of historical ªgures for their views on these questions without considering the author’s aim for the book or project as a whole. This approach has frequently characterized discussions of Gassendi’s philosophy. His major work, the Syntagma Philo- sophicum, is a massive treatise in difªcult neo-Latin, daunting to all but the hardiest (or most foolish) of scholars. Consequently, of those philosophers and historians who deal with Gassendi at all, many rely on the bits that have been translated into English or French or those that deal with speciªc topics and seldom consider the entirety of his work, but the work as a whole gives the parts their meaning. -
Pierre Gassendi's Animals
[Intellectual History Archive 3, 2018] Begley, Pierre Gassendi’s Animals PIERRE GASSENDI’S ANIMALS: A CASE OF EXCLUSION Justin Begley1 University of Helsinki I. Introduction: A Learned Vegetarian The French priest, professor of mathematics, historian, and philosopher, Pierre Gassendi, was perhaps the most influential and well-respected thinkers of his day. 2 While the linguistic and conceptual complexity of his Latin tomes excluded him from the philosophical canon that was formed during the late eighteenth, historians are now beginning to appreciate just how central his ideas were to the development of early modern intellectual life. But recent studies of Gassendi have consistently bypassed a major component of his thought: his defense of a vegetarian diet.3 Conversely, because it is no small task to identify and translate the relevant passages from Gassendi’s oeuvre, historical surveys of vegetarianism have mostly neglected his arguments. Indeed, in the history of vegetarianism, emphasis has been placed on religious sectarians or intellectual outsiders such as Thomas Bushnell and Roger Crab, while figures such as Gassendi who were, historically speaking, intellectual insiders have paradoxically been neglected. 4 Proponents of vegetarianism have thus been shaped teleologically as progressive or even “radical” thinkers. But Gassendi remained thoroughly embedded in the institutions of his day, and channeled the full gamut of humanist apparatuses in his endeavor to integrate the philosophy of the ancient Greek atomist, Epicurus, into the university curriculum. For this purpose, he sought to cleanse Epicurean philosophy of its popular associations with excess, atheism, and debauchery 1 [email protected] 2 Meric Casaubon, Generall Learning: A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on the Formation of the General Scholar, ed. -
Seventeenth-Century News
131 seventeenth-century news Michael Edwards. Time and The Science of The Soul In Early Modern Philosophy. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 224. Leiden: Brill, 2013. x + 224 pp. $128.00. Review by Karin Susan Fester, Independent Scholar. This is a book for philosophers who are not only interested in the concept of time, but who seek new perspectives on this intriguing and problematical philosophical concept as well as appreciate what René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes have to say about it. Michael Edwards’ book is distinctive because it focuses attention on the numerous late Aristotelian thinkers who assumed that the soul’s diverse functions played an active role in the concept of time. More precisely, it is de- voted to the aspects of time which have either not been thoroughly examined or omitted by other historians of early modern philosophy; instead, these other scholars have shown how Aristotelian natural philosophy was concentrated on “space” rather than “time.” Edwards argues that time is somehow intimately connected to the human ra- tional soul—“‘relative’ or as dependent on motion and the soul”—and this, of course, contrasts with Isaac Newton’s (1642–1727) concept of time as something ‘absolute’ (6). The author seems to achieve a persuasive argument, and he invokes elements from early modern commentaries and textbooks concerning Aristotle’s Physics and De Anima and attempts to find connections and influential elements to the natural and political philosophy of Descartes and Hobbes in the seventeenth century. The in-depth Introduction begins with delineating distinct ways of conceptualizing time: absolute and relative. -
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS of ST. PIUS X's DECREE on FREQUENT COMMUNION JOHN A
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF ST. PIUS X's DECREE ON FREQUENT COMMUNION JOHN A. HARDON, SJ. West Baden College HPHE highest tribute to the apostolic genius of St. Pius X was paid by * his successor on the day he raised him to the honors of the altar: "in the profound vision which he had of the Church as a society, Pius X recognized that it was the Blessed Sacrament which had the power to nourish its intimate life substantially, and to elevate it high above all other human societies." To this end "he overcame the prejudices springing from an erroneous practice and resolutely promoted frequent, even daily, Communion among the faithful," thereby leading "the spouse of Christ into a new era of Euchari^tic life."1 In order to appreciate the benefits which Pius X conferred on the Church by his decree on frequent Communion, we might profitably examine the past half-century to see how the practice which he advo cated has revitalized the spiritual life of millions of the faithful. Another way is to go back in history over the centuries preceding St. Pius and show that the discipline which he promulgated in 1905 is at once a vindication of the Church's fidelity to her ancient traditions and a proof of her vitality to be rid of whatever threatens to destroy her divine mission as the sanctifier of souls. The present study will follow the latter method, with an effort to cover all the principal factors in this Eucharistic development which had its roots in the apostolic age but was not destined to bear full fruit until the present time. -
Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2010 Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Jason Skirry University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Skirry, Jason, "Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 179. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Abstract This dissertation presents a unified interpretation of Malebranche’s philosophical system that is based on his Augustinian theory of the mind’s perfection, which consists in maximizing the mind’s ability to successfully access, comprehend, and follow God’s Order through practices that purify and cognitively enhance the mind’s attention. I argue that the mind’s perfection figures centrally in Malebranche’s philosophy and is the main hub that connects and reconciles the three fundamental principles of his system, namely, his occasionalism, divine illumination, and freedom. To demonstrate this, I first present, in chapter one, Malebranche’s philosophy within the historical and intellectual context of his membership in the French Oratory, arguing that the Oratory’s particular brand of Augustinianism, initiated by Cardinal Bérulle and propagated by Oratorians such as Andre Martin, is at the core of his philosophy and informs his theory of perfection. Next, in chapter two, I explicate Augustine’s own theory of perfection in order to provide an outline, and a basis of comparison, for Malebranche’s own theory of perfection. -
Les Épreuves De L'incertain 30 Et 31 Mai 2017
Danna Kostroun, histoire, Indiana University, Purdue University-Indianapolis, Etats- Unis et résidente 2016-2017 à l’IEA de Nantes Action against Uncertainty : The Case of Port-Royal This paper examines the relationship between action and uncertainty at Port Royal. The Cistercian convent of Port-Royal-des-Champs became famous in the 17th century as the center of a Catholic reform movement known as Jansenism. The community at Port-Royal was made up of the nuns who lived in the convent and a group of lay men and women who lived on the convent farm in pious retreat. The community is famous not only for its role in religious reform, but for the intellectual work of its members, who published philosophical and polemical treatises on a number of subjects. Port-Royal was an institution designed to confront uncertainty. Its members recognized many forms of uncertainty and developed different responses to them. The first form of uncertainty dealt with the relationship between humans and God. To confront this uncertainty, Port-Royal adhered to tradition (St. Augustine’s writings on grace) and performed acts of routine, ritual, and repetition (i.e. Blaise Pascal’s human “machine” behavior). The next source of uncertainty dealt with the natural universe and human institutions. To confront this uncertainty, they produced treatises on logic, education, grammar, medicine, and other fields, through which they sought to establish a normative order through reason. A third source of uncertainty was that created by human passions. Humans generated uncertainty when they allowed passions (such as a desire for wealth, domination, or power) to obscure, blind, or otherwise obstruct reason. -
Antoine Arnauld | Encyclopedia.Com
encyclopedia.com Antoine Arnauld | Encyclopedia.com Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography COPYRIGHT 2008 Charles Scribner's Sons 4-5 minutes (b. Paris, France, 1612; d. Brussels, Belgium, 6 August 1694) mathematics, linguistics. Arnauld was the youngest of the twenty children of Antoine Arnauld, a lawyer who defended the University of Paris against the Jesuits in 1594. He was ordained a priest and received the doctorate in theology in 1641, and entered the Sorbonne in 1643, after the death of Richelieu. In 1656 he was expelled from the Sorbonne for his Jansenist views, and spent a good part of the rest of his life in more or less violent theological dispute. He died in self-imposed exile. Although in many of his nontheological writings Arnauld is identified with the Port-Royal school, his voluminous correspondence—with Descartes and Leibniz, among others—bears witness to his own influence and acumen. His philosophical contributions are to be found in his objections to Descartes’s Méditations, in his dispute with Malebranche, and in the Port-Royal Logic, which he wrote with Pierre Nicole. The latter, a text developed from Descartes’s Regulae, elaborates the theory of “clear and distinct” ideas and gives the first account of Pascal’s Méthode. It had an enormous influence as a textbook until comparatively recent times. The profound influence of the Regulae is shown in both the Logic and the Port-Royal Grammar, where it is assumed that linguistic and mental processes are virtually identical, that language is thus to be studied in its “inner” and “outer” aspects. This point of view underlies the project for a universal grammar and the notion of the “transparency” of language: mental processes are common to all human beings, although there are many languages. -
Nominalism and Constructivism in Seventeenth-Century Mathematical Philosophy
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Historia Mathematica 32 (2005) 33–59 www.elsevier.com/locate/hm Nominalism and constructivism in seventeenth-century mathematical philosophy David Sepkoski Department of History, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074, USA Available online 27 November 2003 Abstract This paper argues that the philosophical tradition of nominalism, as evident in the works of Pierre Gassendi, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Barrow, and Isaac Newton, played an important role in the history of mathematics during the 17th century. I will argue that nominalist philosophy of mathematics offers new clarification of the development of a “constructivist” tradition in mathematical philosophy. This nominalist and constructivist tradition offered a way for contemporary mathematicians to discuss mathematical objects and magnitudes that did not assume these entities were real in a Platonic sense, and helped lay the groundwork for formalist and instrumentalist approaches in modern mathematics. 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Résumé Cet article soutient que la tradition philosophique du nominalisme, évidente dans les travaux de Pierre Gassendi, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Barrow et Isaac Newton, a joué un rôle important dans l’histoire des mathématiques pendant le dix-septième siècle. L’argument princicipal est que la philosophie nominaliste des mathématiques est à la base du développement d’une tradition « constructiviste » en philosophie mathématique. Cette tradition nominaliste et constructiviste a permis aux mathématiciens contemporains de pouvoir discuter d’objets et quantités mathématiques sans présupposer leur réalité au sens Platonique du terme, et a contribué au developpement desétudes formalistes et instrumentalistes des mathématiques modernes. -
Introduction
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86613-2 - Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy Antonia Lolordo Excerpt More information Introduction This book is bothaninterpretation of Gassendi’s central metaphysical, epistemological, and natural philosophical views and an advertisement for their philosophical and historical interest. Historians of seventeenth- century philosophy can usually tell you that Gassendi was an atomist, an empiricist,oramitigated skeptic, as well as an opponent of Aristotle and Descartes. They might add that he attempted to revive Epicureanism. However, few are likely to have any clear conception ofthe theses Gassendi articulates, the argumentsheoffers in their defense, or the systematic connections between them. This is an unfortunatesituation, and I aim to remedy it. There are at leasttwo reasons why those of us who are interested in early modern philosophy and natural philosophy need to know more about Gassendi. The first is widely recognized. Gassendi’s influence and the importance he was accorded by his peers and close contemporaries is unquestionable. Gassendi was a central figure in seventeenth-century philosophy and, as such, very importantfor the development of mod- ern philosophical thought. He knew and was known by such figures as Descartes and Hobbes and is importantfor understanding Leibniz, Locke, and Newton. Were one a seventeenth-century intellectual who found Cartesianism unacceptable, Gassendi’s philosophy was the obvi- ous alternative. Less well known, however, is the philosophical interest -
The Hyperbolic Way to Truth from Balzac to Descartes: “Toute Hyperbole Tend Là, De Nous Amener À La Vérité Par L’Excès De La Vérité, C’Estàdire Par Le Mensonge”1
THE HYPERBOLIC WAY TO TRUTH FROM BALZAC TO DESCARTES: “TOUTE HYPERBOLE TEND LÀ, DE NOUS AMENER À LA VÉRITÉ PAR L’EXCÈS DE LA VÉRITÉ, C’ESTÀDIRE PAR LE MENSONGE”1 Giulia Belgioioso* In Th e History of Scepticism From Savonarola to Bayle Richard Popkin refers to Guez de Balzac only four times,2 and never alone: in every reference Balzac is joined with some other relevant intellectual fi gure, such as Antoine Arnauld, the Jesuits, Jean Silhon and—in two occur- rences—Descartes. In his view, these fi gures represent ‘Catholic fanati- cism,’ fi gures who set themselves against La Mothe Le Vayer, assumed to be a monster who threatens religion and faith. According to a hypothesis René Pintard advanced in 1937,3 but now much disputed, La Mothe Le Vayer’s Dialogues could be construed as the “méchant livre” to which Descartes refers in his letter to Mersenne4 of May 6, 1630. Popkin is right to introduce Balzac as the heir of Roman Catholicism as reformed by the Council of Trent, very far from humanist writers and reformers such as Erasmus and George Buchanan (1586–1582). My aim in this paper is not to rehabilitate Balzac, however. Rather, I am especially interested in his notion of “hyperbole”—what he called “the way to reach truth through lying”—for I believe Descartes took advantage of such a hyperbolic procedure in his fi rst three Meditations. Important evidence for this reading is to be found, as I will later show, in the discussion between Descartes and Antoine Arnauld. * Università del Salento, Italy.