Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy

295 Pages·2006·1.78 MB·English

by  Antonia LoLordo

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PierreGassendiandtheBirthofEarlyModernPhilosophy
This book is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the
philosophicalsystemoftheseventeenth-centuryphilosopherPierre
Gassendi. Gassendi’s importance is widely recognized and is essen-
tialforunderstandingearlymodernphilosophersandscientistssuch
as Locke, Leibniz, and Newton. Offering a systematic overview of
hiscontributions,AntoniaLoLordosituatesGassendi’sviewswithin
thecontextofsixteenth-andearlyseventeenth-centurynaturalphi-
losophyasrepresentedbyavarietyofintellectualtraditions,includ-
ing scholastic Aristotelianism, Renaissance neo-Platonism, and the
emergingmechanicalphilosophy.Herworkwillbeessentialreading
forhistoriansofearlymodernphilosophyandscience.
AntoniaLoLordoisAssistantProfessorintheCorcoranDepartment
ofPhilosophyattheUniversityofVirginia.
i
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Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early
Modern Philosophy
ANTONIA LOLORDO
UniversityofVirginia
iii
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521866132
© Antonia LoLordo 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2006
ISBN-13 978-0-511-34892-1 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-10 0-511-34892-4 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-86613-2 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-86613-8 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Contents
Preface page vii
ReferencestoGassendi’sWorks ix
Introduction 1
1 Gassendi’sLifeandTimes 7
TheEpicurusProject 20
GalileoandtheQuestionofCopernicanism 24
2 Gassendi’sPhilosophicalOpponents 34
ScholasticAristotelianism 36
Neo-PlatonismandtheAnimaMundi 44
DescartesandtheMeditations 54
3 Skepticism,Perception,andtheTruthoftheAppearances 60
GassendiandthePyrrhonians 62
ReconstructingEpicureanCanonic 64
TheTheoryofVision 69
TheObjectsofPerception 76
4 Cognition,Knowledge,andtheTheoryofSigns 83
TheOriginofIdeas 84
TheQualityofIdeas 88
SyllogisticReasoning 92
ReasoningandtheTheoryofSigns 94
5 SpaceandTime 100
Space,Place,andVacuum 100
TheOntologyofSpace 106
AbsoluteSpaceandtheExtramundaneVoid 109
TheInterstitialVacuum 112
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vi Contents
TheCoacervateVoid 115
SpaceandGod 119
Time 124
TheWorld 127
6 AtomsandCauses 130
VarietiesofAtomism 133
GassendianAtoms 138
TheWeightofAtomsandTheirCausalPowers 140
ConservationandConcurrence 145
TheConservationof VisMotrixandAtomicMotion 149
7 BodiesandMotion 153
CompositeBodies 154
Texture 157
NaturalandViolentMotion 158
Gravity 160
TheTexturalExplanationofOccultQualities 167
MotioninFreeFall 169
UniformandPerpetualMotion 174
AtomicMotionandtheMotionofCompositeBodies 180
8 Generation,Life,andtheCorporealSoul 183
ThePowersofSouls 184
ThePowersofSeeds 186
TheGenerationofPlants 189
TheGenerationofAnimals 193
DivineCreation,LucretianEvolution,andtheGenerationofSeeds 197
TheProbabilityandSignificanceofSeminalExplanations 199
TheCorporealSoul 202
9 TheMetaphysicsofBody 208
TheRoleofSubstance 210
EssencesorNatures 213
Qualities 217
10 Faith,Reason,andtheImmaterialSoul 227
TheImmaterialSoulintheDisquisitio 228
TheImmaterialSoulintheSyntagma 233
TheImmaterialSoulandtheBody 237
KnowledgeofGod 239
FaithandReason 244
Bibliography 253
Index 273
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Preface
A lot of people have helped me with this book. I started working
on Gassendi while writing a dissertation on his Objections and Counter-
Objections to the Meditations, and I would like to thank my committee –
Peter Klein, Tom Lennon, Pierre Pellegrin, and especially Martha
Bolton–fortheirhelpandsupport.Iwrotethebulkofthismanuscript
whileIwasajointFellowatCalTechandtheHuntingtonLibrary,andI
am grateful to both institutions (and the Mellon Foundation) for their
generousfinancialsupportandforthelovelyworkingatmospherethey
provided. I would especially like to thank Fiona Cowie, Moti Feingold,
andRoyRitchie.
Portions of this book were presented at Dalhousie University, Simon
FraserUniversity,theUniversityofFlorida,theUniversityofNebraskaat
Lincoln, the University of Virginia, the University of Pittsburgh, and
Virginia Tech; and to the Cartesian Circle at UC Irvine, the History
and Philosophy of Science Working Group at Cal Tech, the October
2001 meeting of the Midwest Seminar in the History of Philosophy, a
jointmeetingoftheMidwestSeminar,theCentred’E´tudesCartesiennes
and the Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi su Descartes, and the
OxfordWorkshopinEarlyModernPhilosophy.Iamgratefultoallthese
audiences.
A number of people have provided helpful comments on the
manuscript or portions thereof: Martha Bolton, Jed Buchwald, Andrew
Chignell, Fiona Cowie, Jack Davidson, Raffaella De Rosa, Stewart Dun-
can,MotiFeingold,DanGarber,GeoffGorham,AlanHajek,ChrisHitch-
cock,MichaelJacovides,RichardKroll,MikeLeBoeff,TomLennon,Paul
Lodge, Dominic Murphy, Steve Nadler, Alan Nelson, Margaret Osler,
vii
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viii Preface
PierrePellegrin,AndrewPyle,DonRutherford,JorgeSecada,EdSlowik,
MartinStone,andtwoanonymousrefereesforthePress.PaulLodge,who
hasofferedmoralsupportandanunreservedlysympatheticearthrough-
out,deservesspecialthanks.Iwouldalsoliketothankmycolleaguesat
theUniversityofVirginia,whoallowedmetwoyears’leaveandwhohave
beenunfailinglysupportiveinlesstangiblewaysaswell.Specialthanksare
duetoDanDevereux,BrieGertler,PaulHumphreys,andJorgeSecada.
Finally,IwouldliketothankKathrynBurns.
I am sure I have forgotten someone important. If so, it is not out of
lackofgratitude,justlackofmemory.
Portions of Chapters 2 and 3 appeared in the British Journal for the
HistoryofPhilosophy(as“‘Descartes’sOneRuleofLogic’:Gassendi’sCri-
tique of Clear and Distinct Perception”). Portions of Chapters 2 and 6
appearedinOxfordStudiesinEarlyModernPhilosophy(as“TheActivityof
Matter in Gassendi’s Physics”). Portions of Chapter 10 appeared in the
Archiv fu¨r Geschichte der Philosophie (as “Gassendi on Human Knowledge
of the Mind”). I thank the editors and publishers of these journals for
permissiontousethatmaterialhere.