Search results for "natural philosophy"
showing 10 items of 14 documents
Topology, Matter, and Space, I: Topological Notions in 19th-Century Natural Philosophy
1998
L'A. montre l'impact de la topologie dans le developpement de la theorie dynamique des phenomenes physiques ainsi que les speculations de la structure topologique de l'espace
The Cultivation of Astronomy in Spanish Universities in the Latter Half of the 16th Century
2006
The four universities known to have taught mathematics in the 16th century in what is now known as Spain, were Salamanca, Valencia, Alcala, and, at the end of the century, Seville. In addition to being taught at university, astronomy was also taught in other institutions such as for example, the Casa de la Contratacion of Seville, the so-called Mathematics Academy of Madrid, certain naval academies and, towards the end of the century, certain Jesuit schools. At the University of Valencia, following the official foundation of the Estudi or center of learning in 1500, a chair of mathematics was set up in 1503, although we have no documentary evidence of the subjects taught there in the early …
Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Elements in Hume
2016
For the last forty years, Hume's Newtonianism has been a debated topic in Hume scholarship. The crux of the matter can be formulated by the following question: Is Hume a Newtonian philosopher? Debates concerning this question have produced two lines of interpretation. I shall call them ‘traditional’ and ‘critical’ interpretations. The traditional interpretation asserts that there are many Newtonian elements in Hume, whereas the critical interpretation seriously questions this.In this article, I consider the main points made by both lines of interpretations and offer further arguments that contribute to this debate. I shall first argue, in favor of the traditional interpretation, that Hume i…
Sobre la filosofia de l’humanista valencià Joan Serra al De contemplatione amicicie. Notes a una traducció catalana
2013
Resum: Presentem la traducció catalana del De contemplatione amicicie, escrit per l’humanista valenciàJoan Serra l’any 1454. La traducció parteix de l’edició curada per Evencio Beltran de l’únic manuscritconegut: BNF ms Nat. lat. 8756. La translació s’acompanya d’una introducció historicofilosòficaarticulada al voltant de l’analogia fonamental de l’obra, a saber, la concòrdia absoluta de dos amicsés com la unió perfecta del cos i de l’ànima humana. S’hi analitzen les fonts fonamentals: Cicerói Pseudo-Agustí, i s’hi constata l’organització dual dels continguts del text, en tant que dedica elscapítols senars a la consideració de la unió del cos i l’ànima segons la filosofia natural, mentre qu…
Will in Early Modern Philosophy
2013
Early modern philosophy inherited from the Middle Ages various very elaborate concepts of the will. It seems that little philosophical depth was added to the analyses of these concepts during this period. Rather, it is characteristic of the early modern discussions that traditional distinctions and theories were re-evaluated in new contexts, among which the mechanical approach to natural philosophy is of particular importance. Many philosophers were opposed to what was called ‘scholastic subtlety’, and defended instead very straightforward theories of the will.
Socrate e il mare. Il modello odissiaco nel Fedone
2015
Nel Fedone Platone traccia una biografia intellettuale di Socrate articolata in vari momenti. L’ultimo di essi (τὸν δεύτερον πλοῦν, la “seconda navigazione”) consiste nel passaggio dall’osservazione naturalistica ad una fi- losofia orientata in senso dialogico. La metafora della “seconda navigazione” rimanda al V libro dell’Odissea, in cui Odisseo rinuncia alla vita paradisiaca nell’isola di Calipso per tentare la traversata dell’abisso su una zattera e rag- giungere Itaca. In tutto il dialogo si trovano numerosi riferimenti all’Odissea: l’excursus autobiografico in cui Socrate definisce la propria filosofia può essere confrontato con i Discorsi di Odisseo alla corte del re Alcinoo. In …
Philosophy of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle
2012
From the first century BCE onwards, philosophers started to write commentaries on those Aristotle’s treatises that were meant for the internal use of his school. Plato’s works had been commented on already earlier, the first reported commentary originates in the 300s BCE. Commentaries are treatises that follow an object text in a more or less linear fashion. The format was not unknown before the first century BCE but new in extensive philosophical use. This review essay focuses on authors who commented on Aristotle’s works. The commentaries emerged when Platonists and Aristotelians observed the need to teach the philosophy of these ancient masters to their students and to systematise their …
Plant Morphology: The Historic Concepts of Wilhelm Troll, Walter Zimmermann and Agnes Arber
2001
Recent molecular systematic and developmental genetic findings have drawn attention to plant morphology as a discipline dealing with the phenotypic appearance of plant forms. However, since different terms and conceptual frameworks have evolved over a period of more than 200 years, it is reasonable to survey the history of plant morphology; this is the first of two papers with this aim. The present paper deals with the historic concepts of Troll, Zimmermann and Arber, which are based on Goethe's morphology. Included are contrasting views of ‘unity and diversity’, ‘position and process’, and ‘morphology and phylogeny’, which, in part, are basic views of current plant morphology, phylogenetic…
Universal Gravitation and the (Un)Intelligibility of Natural Philosophy
2019
This article centers on Hume's position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. To that end, the controversy surrounding universal gravitation shall be scrutinized. It is very well known that Hume sides with the Newtonian experimentalist approach rather than with the Leibnizian demand for intelligibility. However, what is not clear is Hume's overall position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. It shall be argued that Hume declines Leibniz's principle of intelligibility. However, Hume does not eschew intelligibility altogether; his concept of causation itself stipulates mechanical intelligibility. peerReviewed
The Body of the Soul. Lucretian Echoes in the Renaissance Theories on the Psychic Substance and its Organic Repartition
2015
In the 16th and 17th centuries, when Aristotelianism still was the leading current of natural philosophy and atomistic theories began to arise, Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura stood out as an attractive and dangerous model. The present paper reassesses several relevant aspects of Lucretius’ materialistic psychology by focusing on the problem of the soul’s repartition through the limbs discussed in Book 3. A very successful Lucretian image serves as fil rouge throughout this survey: the description of a snake chopped up, with its pieces moving on the ground (Lucretius DRN 1969, 3.657–669). The paper’s first section sets the poet’s theory against the background of ancient psychology, pointing out …