Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Theology and the philosophy of nature
- Part II The mechanical philosophy and the formation of scientific styles
- 7 Introduction: Theories of matter and their epistemological roots
- 8 Gassendi's atomism: An empirical theory of matter
- 9 Mathematizing nature: Descartes' geometrical theory of matter
- 10 Conclusion: Theology transformed – the emergence of styles of science
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Gassendi's atomism: An empirical theory of matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Theology and the philosophy of nature
- Part II The mechanical philosophy and the formation of scientific styles
- 7 Introduction: Theories of matter and their epistemological roots
- 8 Gassendi's atomism: An empirical theory of matter
- 9 Mathematizing nature: Descartes' geometrical theory of matter
- 10 Conclusion: Theology transformed – the emergence of styles of science
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Physics can be defined as “the contemplative science of natural things,” since through it we explore how complex a thing is, of what species it is, how much of it there is, of what principles it consists, by what cause it is produced, and what effect it brings about. … If these things are understood, then the nature of the thing … is understood.
Pierre Gassendi, Syntagma philosophicumIn earlier chapters, I discussed the reasons why Gassendi considered it necessary to modify Epicureanism in order to render it theologically acceptable. I then argued that a close relationship existed between his voluntarist theology and his empiricist theory of scientific knowledge. In this chapter, I argue that his theories of matter and causality were enmeshed in his epistemology and that they thus indirectly reflected the theological assumptions that informed his entire philosophical enterprise.
Gassendi was not the first advocate of atomism in the seventeenth century, but he was surely the most systematic. His coupling of atomism with the astronomy of Copernicus and the physics of Galileo, as well as his commitment to ridding atomism of the theologically objectionable doctrines traditionally associated with Epicureanism, set him apart from earlier advocates of the atomic theory and probably account for the ultimate success of his project. Like Gassendi, one early-seventeenth-century atomist, David van Goorle (d. 1612) was also concerned to refute Aristotle. Sebastian Basso (fl. 1550–1600) advocated atomism as an alternative to Aristotelianism, which he criticized at length in Philosophiae naturalis adversus Aristotelem (1621).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Divine Will and the Mechanical PhilosophyGassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World, pp. 180 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994