Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- References to Descartes' works
- Introduction
- 1 Before the Principia
- 2 The Principia and the Scholastic textbook tradition
- 3 Principia, Part I: The principles of knowledge
- 4 Principia, Part II: The principles of material objects
- 5 Principia, Part III: The visible universe
- 6 Principia, Part IV: The Earth
- 7 Principia, Part V: Living things
- 8 Principia, Part VI: Man
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Principia, Part IV: The Earth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- References to Descartes' works
- Introduction
- 1 Before the Principia
- 2 The Principia and the Scholastic textbook tradition
- 3 Principia, Part I: The principles of knowledge
- 4 Principia, Part II: The principles of material objects
- 5 Principia, Part III: The visible universe
- 6 Principia, Part IV: The Earth
- 7 Principia, Part V: Living things
- 8 Principia, Part VI: Man
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Part IV of the Principia, Descartes made the Earth an object of natural–philosophical/scientific investigation for the first time. There had, of course, been theories about such phenomena as earthquakes and volcanic activity, but these were considered – most notably by Aristotle – to be something that affected only the superficial layers of the Earth: the Earth's great mass was inert. As Jacques Roger has put it, Descartes' was ‘the first attempt to understand systematically the Earth's structure and its actual topography’. Having not only moved the Earth from the centre of the cosmos, but also made it little more than a piece of refuse from another solar system, Descartes puts himself in a position where he can consider it in the same way as any other concentration of solid matter, and indeed can consider any other planet as being like the Earth. Descartes is not unaware of the radical consequences of what he is advocating. As he points out to Burman:
It is a common habit of men to suppose that they themselves are the dearest of God's creatures, and that all things are therefore made for their benefit. They think their own dwelling place, the Earth, is of supreme importance, that it contains everything that exists, that everything else was created for its sake. But what do we know of what God may have created outside the Earth, on the stars, and so on? How do we know that he has not placed on the stars other species of creature, other lives and other ‘men’ – or at least beings analogous to men?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Descartes' System of Natural Philosophy , pp. 161 - 179Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002