INTRODUCTIONDISCIPLINES AND FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY MODERN THOUGHT Invited editors: Dana Jalobeanu, Oana Matei, and Laura GeorgescuThe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of unprecedented change, in almost every respect, but particularly in the modes, practices, norms and methods associated with the production of knowledge. They also saw the emergence of new disciplines […]
Category: Vol. 5 no. 2
Vol. 5 no. 2
Making the “round of knowledge” in Bacon’s wake: Naudé, Comenius, and Browne Sandra DRAGOMIR – Utopia and New Atlantis, utopia revised
MAKING THE “ROUND OF KNOWLEDGE” IN BACON’S WAKE: NAUDÉ, COMENIUS, AND BROWNE1 Christopher D. JOHNSON* Abstract. This paper examines how three of Francis Bacon’s readers, Gabriel Naudé, Jan Amos Comenius, and Thomas Browne, rethink the humanist library, the genre of the silva, and Bacon’s call for a new kind of encyclopedism. Naudé adumbrates the organization […]
Utopia and New Atlantis, utopia revised
UTOPIA AND NEW ATLANTIS, UTOPIA REVISED Sandra DRAGOMIR* Abstract. This paper is a comparison between two works usually ascribed to the utopian genre: Thomas More’s Utopia, and Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. My major claim is that the two differ mainly in this respect: if More’s work is utopian, Bacon’s New Atlantis is only disguised under […]
Macaria and the puritan ethics of direct participation in the transformation of the world
MACARIA AND THE PURITAN ETHICS OF DIRECT PARTICIPATION IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD Oana MATEI* Abstract. This paper explores a particular way in which the Baconian reformation of knowledge can be seen as providing conditions of possibility for the emergence of Puritan ethics in the mid-seventeenthcentury England. Macaria, along with other works belonging to […]
The City of The Sun and the foundations for social performance
THE CITY OF THE SUN AND THE FOUNDATIONS FOR SOCIAL PERFORMANCE Martian IOVAN*Abstract. This paper proposes a new contextual interpretation of The City of the Sun as a pattern for social performance in a systematic, well organized society. I will explore the foundations of some interesting concepts and aspects developed by Campanella in The City […]
Fictions of the world in Descartes’ and Gassendi’s physics
FICTIONS OF THE WORLD IN DESCARTES’ AND GASSENDI’S PHYSICS Alexandra TORERO-IBAD* Abstract. Both Gassendi and Descartes used fables in order to account for the formation of the world. The first aim of this paper is to argue that, in both cases, the use of fiction does not merely wish to avoid competing with the account […]
Core experiments, natural histories and the art of experientia literata: the meaning of Baconian experimentation
CORE EXPERIMENTS, NATURAL HISTORIES AND THE ART OF EXPERIENTIA LITERATA: THE MEANING OF BACONIAN EXPERIMENTATION Dana JALOBEANU* Abstract. Experiment, as a new form of knowledge, was a Baconian creation. It was in Bacon’s project of Great Instauration and in Bacon’s reformed natural history that experiment and experimentationceased to be illustrations of theories and become relatively […]
A new form of knowledge: experientia literata
A NEW FORM OF KNOWLEDGE: EXPERIENTIA LITERATA Laura GEORGESCU* Abstract. In this paper, I assess Francis Bacon’s methodological considerations on the process of experimentation in order to show that experiments and experimentation have a productive role in his scientific inquiry. By looking at the structure of the problems selected for investigation, and at the ways […]
Cartesianism and chymistry
CARTESIANISM AND CHYMISTRY Mihnea DOBRE* Abstract. One of the most difficult, yet interesting change in the seventeenth-century natural philosophy was that of chemistry. This essay focuses upon Cartesian re-evaluation of the philosophical disciplines, arguing that, from a systematic perspective, chemistry cannot find a place in natural philosophy. Chemistry, in its seventeenth-century form of “chymistry” shares […]
Sufficient reason and the causal argument for monism
SUFFICIENT REASON AND THE CAUSAL ARGUMENT FOR MONISM Landon FRIM* Abstract. What is the role of the principle of sufficient reason in Baruch Spinoza’s ontological proof for God’s existence? Is this role identical within Spinoza’s early work on method, the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, and his magnum opus, the Ethics? This paper […]