Since science played such a major role in the secularization process and the “disenchantment of the world,” it was largely inevitable that the relationship between religion (broadly speaking) and science was to be understood in terms of “warfare.” Everyone knew from the beginning, however, who the winner was and which was the “good” side. Under […]
Category: Vol. 6 no. 2
Vol. 6 no. 2
Regional Natural History in England: Physico-Theology and the Exploration of Nature
REGIONAL NATURAL HISTORY IN ENGLAND: PHYSICOTHEOLOGY AND THE EXPLORATION OF NATUREDavid BECK Abstract. First the article offers a contextual discussion of more widespread Latitudinarian views of nature and the relationship between the landscape and God. Secondly, it argues that the regional natural history should be seen as a contribution to debates regarding physicotheological belief, through […]
From Causes to Relations: The Emergence of a Non-Aristotelian Concept of Geometrical Proof out of the Quaestio De Certitudine Mathematicarum
FROM CAUSES TO RELATIONS: THE EMERGENCE OF A NON-ARISTOTELIAN CONCEPT OF GEOMETRICAL PROOF OUT OF THE QUAESTIO DE CERTITUDINE MATHEMATICARUMTobias SCHÖTTLER Abstract. Insofar as many Renaissance thinkers regard Aristotelian philosophy of science as the framework for their understanding of mathematics and its proofs, they consider geometrical proofs as syllogisms using causes.Furthermore, they identify geometrical proofs […]
Resolving the Question of Doubt: Geometrical Demonstration in the Meditations
RESOLVING THE QUESTION OF DOUBT: GEOMETRICAL DEMONSTRATION IN THE MEDITATIONSSteven BURGESS Abstract. The question of what Descartes did and did not doubt in the Meditations has received a significant amount of scholarly attention in recent years. The process of doubt in Meditation I gives one the impression of a rather extreme form of skepticism, while […]
Equivocation in the Foundations of Leibniz’s Infinitesimal Fictions
EQUIVOCATION IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEIBNIZ’S INFINITESIMAL FICTIONSTzuchien THO Abstract. In this article, I address two different kinds of equivocations in reading Leibniz’s fictional infinite and infinitesimal. These equivocations form the background of a reductive reading of infinite and infinitesimal fictions either as ultimately finite or as something whose status can be taken together with […]
Descartes and the Meteorology of the World
DESCARTES AND THE METEOROLOGY OF THE WORLD Patrick BRISSEY Abstract. Descartes claimed that he thought he could deduce the assumptions of his Meteorology by the contents of the Discourse. He actually began the Meteorology with assumptions. The content of the Discourse, moreover, does not indicate how he deduced the assumptions of the Meteorology. We seem […]
Necessitarianism in Leibniz’s Confessio Philosophi
NECESSITARIANISM IN LEIBNIZ’S CONFESSIO PHILOSOPHI Joseph Michael ANDERSON Abstract. Leibniz’s Confessio philosophi (1672–1673) appears to provide an anti-necessitarian solution to the problem of the author of sin. I will give here a brief reading of what appear to be two solutions to the problem of the author of sin in the Confessio. The first solution […]
Fides et Ratio in the Renaissance
FIDES ET RATIO IN THE RENAISSANCE Paul Richard Blum, Philosophy of Religion in the Renaissance(Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), ISBN-13: 9780754607816 (hbk.), 9781409402626 (ebk.), ISBN-10: CHECK, ISBN-10: 075460781X, pp. ix + 211 pp. Lucian PETRESCU Abstract. Philosophy of religion, once taken out of determined contexts such as seventeenth century Cambridge, eighteenth century salons or contemporary analytic departments, […]
Science and Religion and the Myth of their Conflict
SCIENCE AND RELIGION AND THE MYTH OF THEIR CONFLICT Peter Harrison (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), ISBN – 10: 0521712513, ISBN – 13: 9780521712514, pp. 322. Sebastian MATEIESCU The scholarly but also the public interest in the relationship between science and religion has registered a remarkable increase […]
Pathways in Cartesian Philosophy
PATHWAYS IN CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY Roger Ariew, Descartes among the Scholastics (Leiden: Brill, 2011), ISBN–13: 978-9004207240, ISBN–10: 9004207244, pp. xiii + 360. Revised and expanded edition of Descartes and the last Scholastics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), ISBN–13: 978-0801436031, ISBN– 10:0801436036, pp. xii + 230. Mihai-Dragos VADANA However paradoxical it may sound, “Descartes among the Scholastics” […]