Descartes-Agonistes. Physico-mathematics, method and corpuscular-mechanism 1618--33
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Descartes-Agonistes. Physico-mathematics, method and corpuscular-mechanism 1618--33
zbMATH Open document ID: 1279.01004
published in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (Dordrecht)
publication date: 2012-12-04T00:00:00Z
review text: Schuster's seminal book addresses one of the most important issues, now much discussed between historians of science, concerning the different interpretations of the terms ``mixed mathematics'', ``physico-mathematics'', ``natural philosophy'', and later ``applied mathematics''. The evolution from the Aristotelian mixed mathematical sciences, intermediate between natural philosophy and mathematics, to subordinate them with a merely descriptive or instrumental role to physico-mathematics, where mathematics plays a more explanatory role of matter and causes of phenomena, constitutes an exciting subject. The different interpretations of this process by various authors makes this research a very complicated challenge. Schuster's work appears to be very difficult to understand for people who have not worked or thought on this subject and who are not familiar with Descartes' works and ideas. Indeed, Schuster's aims are the reconstruction of the influential natural philosopher Descartes' thoughts in his works, with a structuring and contextualization of ideas such as mixed mathematics, physico-mathematics, natural philosophy, and method, from 1618 to 1633. The book consists of 631 pages and is divided into thirteen chapters and two appendices, in one of which Schuster discusses Descartes' lens theory and the other dealing with Descartes' vortex in the text of \textit{Le monde}. The author justifies the inclusion of both appendices in order to arrive at a more complete confirmation of his interpretation of Descartes' trajectory. The first chapter presents an overview of different interpretations by historians of Descartes' works in which the author emphasizes the idea of the difficulty of biographical works regarding authors of Scientific Revolution. Furthermore, he reminds us that knowledge of Descartes' works and some manuscripts is insufficient for historians to arrive at any fundamental conclusions about Descartes' ideas. One needs to contextualize by analyzing the evolu…
reviewed by: Maria Rosa Massa Esteve
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01-02
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A45
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A70
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 00A30
zbMATH DE Number: 6112287
zbMATH Keywords: Descartes
zbMATH Keywords: mixed mathematics
zbMATH Keywords: physico-mathematics
zbMATH Keywords: natural philosophy
zbMATH Keywords: Regulae
zbMATH Keywords: Le monde
zbMATH Keywords: Principia
author: John A. Schuster
MaRDI profile type: Publication
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6112287