Cartesian Empiricisms

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   • Mihnea Dobre, Tammy Nyden

   Pages 1-21

3. Cartesian Natural Philosophy: Receptions and Context

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

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   2. Censorship, Condemnations, and the Spread of Cartesianism

      • Roger Ariew

      Pages 25-46

   3. Was There a Cartesian Experimentalism in 1660s France?

      • Sophie Roux

      Pages 47-88

   4. Dutch Cartesian Empiricism and the Advent of Newtonianism

      • Wiep van Bunge

      Pages 89-104

   5. Heat, Action, Perception: Models of Living Beings in German Medical Cartesianism

      • Justin E. H. Smith

      Pages 105-123

   6. Could a Practicing Chemical Philosopher Be a Cartesian?

      • Bernard Joly

      Pages 125-148

4. Cartesian Natural Philosophers

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 149-149

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   2. Empiricism Without Metaphysics: Regius’ Cartesian Natural Philosophy

      • Delphine Bellis

      Pages 151-183

   3. Robert Desgabets on the Physics and Metaphysics of Blood Transfusion

      • Patricia Easton

      Pages 185-202

   4. Rohault’s Cartesian Physics

      • Mihnea Dobre

      Pages 203-226

   5. De Volder’s Cartesian Physics and Experimental Pedagogy

      • Tammy Nyden

      Pages 227-249

   6. The Cartesian Psychology of Antoine Le Grand

      • Gary Hatfield

      Pages 251-274

   7. Mechanical Philosophy in an Enchanted World: Cartesian Empiricism in Balthasar Bekker’s Radical Reformation

      • Koen Vermeir

      Pages 275-306

5. Back Matter

   Pages 307-326

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Cartesian Empiricisms considers the role Cartesians played in the acceptance of experiment in natural philosophy during the seventeenth century. It aims to correct a partial image of Cartesian philosophers as paradigmatic system builders who failed to meet challenges posed by the new science’s innovative methods. Studies in this volume argue that far from being strangers to experiment, many Cartesians used and integrated it into their natural philosophies. Chapter 1 reviews the historiographies of early modern philosophy, science, and Cartesianism and their recent critiques. The first part of the volume explores various Cartesian contexts of experiment: the impact of French condemnations of Cartesian philosophy in the second half of the seventeenth century; the relation between Cartesian natural philosophy and the Parisian academies of the 1660s; the complex interplay between Cartesianism and Newtonianism in the Dutch Republic; the Cartesian influence on medical teaching at the University of Duisburg; and the challenges chemistry posed to the Cartesian theory of matter. The second part of the volume examines the work of particular Cartesians, such as Henricus Regius, Robert Desgabets, Jacques Rohault, Burchard de Volder, Antoine Le Grand, and Balthasar Bekker. Together these studies counter scientific revolution narratives that take rationalism and empiricism to be two mutually exclusive epistemological and methodological paradigms. The volume is thus a helpful instrument for anyone interested both in the histories of early modern philosophy and science, as well as for scholars interested in new evaluations of the historiographical tools that framed our traditional narratives.

• Advent of Newtonianism
• Cartesian Empiricisms
• Cartesian Experimentalism in 1660’s France
• Cartesian Natural Philosophers
• Cartesian Physics and Experimental Pedagogy
• Chemical Philosopher
• Dutch Cartesian Empiricism
• Empiricism Without Metaphysics
• Living Beings in German Medical Cartesianism
• Rohault’s Cartesian Physics
• Scientific Revolution
• The Spread of Cartesianism

• Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

  Mihnea Dobre

• Philosophy Department, Grinnell College, Grinnell, USA

  Tammy Nyden