The early modern era produced the Scientific Revolution, which originated our present understanding of the natural world. Concurrently, philosophers established the conceptual foundations of modernity. This rich and comprehensive volume surveys and illuminates the numerous and complicated interconnections between philosophical and scientific thought as both were radically transformed from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The chapters explore reciprocal influences between philosophy and physics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other disciplines, and show how thinkers responded to an immense range of intellectual, material, and institutional influences. The volume offers a unique perspicuity, viewing the entire landscape of early modern philosophy and science, and also marks an epoch in contemporary scholarship, surveying recent contributions and suggesting future investigations for the next generation of scholars and students.
Edited by:
David Marshall Miller (Iowa State University),
Dana Jalobeanu
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781108413671
ISBN 10: 1108413676
Pages: 550
Publication Date: 30 May 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: the disciplinary revolutions of early modern philosophy and science David Marshall Miller and Dana Jalobeanu; Part I. The Disciplines: 1. The uses of ancient philosophy Dmitri Levitin; 2. Novatores Daniel Garber; 3. Renaissance aristotelianism(s) Helen Hattab; 4. What to do with the mechanical philosophy? Sophie Roux; 5. The later sects: cartesians, gassendists, leibnizians, and newtonians Delphine Bellis; 6. Confessionalization and natural philosophy Andreas Blank; 7. The rise of a public science? Women and natural philosophy in the early modern period Karen Detlefsen; Part II. Disciplinary Activities: 8. The art of thinking Sorana Corneanu and Koen Vermeir; 9. Astrology, natural magic, and the scientific revolution Stephen Clucas; 10. Practitioners' knowledge Joel A. Klein; 11. Medicine and the science of the living body Peter Distelzweig and Evan Ragland; 12. Experimental natural history Peter R. Anstey and Dana Jalobeanu; 13. Celestial physics Pietro Daniel Omodeo and Jonathan Regier; 14. Applying mathematics to nature Maarten Van Dyck; 15. Mathematical innovation and tradition: the cartesian common and the leibnizian new analyses Niccolò Guicciardini; 16. Mechanics in newton's wake Brian Hepburn and Zvi Biener; Part III. Problems and Controversies: 17. Galileo's sidereus nuncius and its reception David Marshall Miller; 18. Instruments and the senses Philippe Hamou; 19. Science of mind Martine Pécharman; 20. Circulation and the new physiology Gideon Manning; 21. From metaphysical principles to dynamical laws Marius Stan; 22. The debate about body and extension Geoffrey Gorham and Edward Slowik; 23. Space and its relationship to god Andrew Janiak and Emily Thomas; 24. The vis viva controversy Anne-Lise Rey.
David Marshall Miller is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. He is author of Representing Space in the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and has published essays in books and journals including Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Perspectives on Science, and Archive for History of Exact Sciences. Dana Jalobeanu is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest and Director of the Humanities Division of the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest. She is author of The Art of Experimental Natural History: Francis Bacon in Context (2015). She is co-editor of the Journal of Early Modern Studies and co-organizer of the Princeton-Bucharest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy.
