Baroque Science PDF
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Baroque Science Baroque Science O F E R G A L R A Z C H E N - M O R R I S The University of Chicago Press CHICAGO AND LONDON ofer gal is associate professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney. raz chen- morris is a lecturer in the Science, Technol- ogy, and Society Program at Bar-Ilan University. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2013 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2013. Printed in the United States of America 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 isbn- 13: 978-0-226-92398-7 (cloth) isbn- 13: 978-0-226-92399-4 (e- book) isbn- 10: 0-226-92398-3 (cloth) isbn- 10: 0-226-92399-1 (e- book) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gal, Ofer. Baroque science / Ofer Gal, Raz Chen-Morris. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-226-92398-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-92399-4 (e-book) 1. Science—History—17th century. 2. Mathematics—History— 17th century. 3. Optics—History—17th century. 4. Discoveries in science— History—17th century. 5. Science—Philosophy—History—17th century. I. Chen-Morris, Raz. II. Title. Q127.e85g35 2013 509.4′09033—dc23 2012043141 o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/ niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). ונירוהל Contents List of Figures xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 In the Eye of the Painter 1 The Price of New Knowledge 2 The Opposition 6 The Power of Paradox 7 Baroque 9 The Argument 11 i observation 13 1 Science’s Disappearing Observer: Baroque Optics and the Enlightenment of Vision 15 Introduction 15 Kepler 16 Anxieties, Solutions, and Compromises 26 Descartes 34 Conclusion 51 2 Per aenigmate: Mirrors and Lenses as Cognitive Tools in Medieval and Renaissance Europe 53 Introduction 53 Spectacles 53 Through a Glass, Darkly 58 Signs and Symbols 60 The Aristotelian Order 61 Scholastic Light Metaphysics 66 Mediation 69 Transcending the Power of Reason 72 Conclusion 76 3 The Specter of the Telescope: Radical Instrumentalism from Galileo to Hooke 79 Introduction: Instruments and Cosmology 79 The Controversy over the Comets 81 The Supremacy of the Instrument 91 The Controversy Continues 97 Conclusion: What Is There to See? 109 ii mathematization 115 4 Nature’s Drawing: Problems and Resolutions in the Mathematization of Motion 117 Introduction 117 Traces 118 Kepler 119 Galileo 124 Before Kepler 134 After Galileo 144 5 From Divine Order to Human Approximation: Mathematics in Baroque Science 161 Kepler and Newton 161 Kepler and Perfection 164 Newton and Disorder 168 Conclusion 182 6 The Emergence of Baroque Mathematical Natural Philosophy: An Archeology of the Inverse Square Law 185 Hooke and Newton 185 Hooke 192 Kepler 206 Before Kepler 215 Conclusion 228 iii passions 231 7 Passions, Imagination, and the Persona of the New Savant 233 Introduction: The Princess and the Sage 233 Imagination 238 Rule of Reason 252 Passions 270 Abbreviations 283 Notes 285 Bibliography 313 Index 331
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