Leibniz and the Perfection of Clocks Matteo Favaretti Camposampiero Abstract. Throughout his life, Leibniz showed serious interest in the construction of clocks and actively contributed to their technical improvement. He described the mechanical and especially the pendulum clock as a paradigmatic kind of machine, and therefore as a suitable model for exploring the nature […]
Author: dti
Oscillating Affects: Spinoza’s Models for the Confrontation and Adaptation of Opposite Things
Oscillating Affects: Spinoza’s Models for the Confrontation and Adaptation of Opposite Things Maxime Rovere Abstract. Spinoza’s conception of “negativity: is generally approached under the angle of his metaphysics. Relying instead on ethical considerations throughout his work, this article proposes to identify a slight evolution in the philosopher’s thought, especially between the Tractatus de Intellectus […]
Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens: The Odd Philosopher and the Odd Sympathy of Pendulum Clocks
Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens: The Odd Philosopher and the Odd Sympathy of Pendulum Clocks Filip Buyse Abstract. In 1665, in a response to a question posed by Robert Boyle, Spinoza gave a definition of the coherence between bodies in the universe that seems to be inconsistent both with what he had written in a […]
The Pulsilogium of Santorio New Light on Technology and Measurement in Early Modern Medicine
The Pulsilogium of Santorio New Light on Technology and Measurement in Early Modern Medicine Fabrizio Bigotti, David Taylor Abstract. Abstract. The emergence of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had in medicine an important field of development thanks especially to the work of Santorio Santori (1561-1636). Mostly known for his contribution to […]
The Mathematics of Isochronism in Galileo: From his Manuscript Notes on Motion to the Discorsi
The Mathematics of Isochronism in Galileo: From his Manuscript Notes on Motion to the Discorsi Mohammed Abattouy Abstract. This article surveys Galileo’s contribution to the conceptualisation of the problem of isochronism, as his most important input in the study of the oscillation of heavy bodies. We will deal essentially with the mathematical aspects of […]
Huygens’s Odd Sympathy Recreated
Huygens’s Odd Sympathy Recreated Kurt Wiesenfeld Abstract. In 2000, a Georgia Tech research team decided to recreate experiments described by Christiaan Huygens concerning his newly invented pendulum clock. Dormant for 335 years, and resurrected as a historical curiosity, Huygens’s system informs and inspires current research in nonlinear science. Keywords: Christiaan Huygens, pendulum clocks, synchronization, experiments, […]
Introduction. Galileo, Huygens and the Pendulum Clock: Isochronism and Synchronicity
Introduction. Galileo, Huygens and the Pendulum Clock: Isochronism and Synchronicity Invited editor: Filip Buyse On the 2nd October 2017, the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three researchers who were able to elucidate how the internal, biological clock of living organisms adapts itself so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s […]
Spinoza and the Galilean Heritage
Spinoza and the Galilean Heritage “Galileo and Spinoza”, ed. Filip Buyse, Intellectual History Review, Volume 23, Issue 1 (March 2013), ISSN: 1749-6977 (Print), 1749-6985 (Online), 157 pp. Oberto MARRAMA As suggested by its title, the volume Galileo and Spinoza, special Issue of Intellectual History Review (23/1, March 2013), is entirely devoted to investigating possible points […]
Demeter’s Opticks-Inspired Interpretation of Hume
Demeter’s Opticks-Inspired Interpretation of Hume Tamás Demeter, David Hume and the Culture of Scottish Newtonianism: Methodology and Ideology in Enlightenment Inquiry (Boston: Brill, 2016), Hardcover ISBN 9789004327313, e-book ISBN 9789004327320, 221 pp. Ramona WINTER In his insightful book, Tamás Demeter places David Hume’s philosophy within the tradition of Scottish Newtonianism. As Demeter notes, commentators generally […]
The Relation between Physics and Metaphysics in Descartes and The Early French Cartesians
The Relation between Physics and Metaphysics in Descartes and The Early French Cartesians Mihnea Dobre, Descartes and Early French Cartesianism: Between Metaphysics and Physics (Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2017), ISBN: 978-606-697-041-9, 422 pp. Grigore VIDA Descartes and Early French Cartesianism: Between Metaphysics and Physics (“Foundations of Modern Thought” series; Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2017) is Mihnea Dobre’s […]