Descrizione

Hardback, Pages: 135, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:2 b/w, 10 col., Languages: English, French. ISBN 9782503619392. Summary The history of the reception of Descartes's mechanical cosmology was usually told as the gradual dismissal of the vortex theory. At an early stage, however, during the decades after Descartes's death, this reception took a theological turn, which is often overlooked by historians of philosophy and science, but also by Cartesian scholars, who tend to focus mainly on the debates concerning the Eucharist. Between 1650 and 1670, several authors attempted to uncover the fit between the Mosaic history of Creation and Descartes's cosmological theory. Henry More, G raud de Cordemoy, and Johannes Amerpoel are the most illustrative examples of this direction. They argued in defense of Descartes's religious orthodoxy by explaining the biblical cosmogony according to the principles of the Cartesian mechanistic physics. The present volume is concerned with Cordemoy's involvement in the debate. It offers a new critical edition of Cordemoy's letter to R. P. Cossart (Lettre crite un s avant religieux, 1668, 1669), together with the English translation of 1670 on facing pages. The commentary follows the ramifications around Cordemoy's project of explaining the agreement between Descartes's new philosophy and the cosmogony of Genesis 1, with the aim to disentangle the associated philosophical, theological, philological, and historical issues TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction. Cordemoy and the Early Modern Context Cordemoy's Life and Context The Background of the Lettre The Lettre and Cordemoy's Philosophy Metaphysics and Atomism The Union between the Mind and the Body, the Theory of Speech, and the Animal-Machine Cartesian Cosmology and Mosaic Physics Descartes and Biblical Cosmogony Cordemoy's Cartesian Interpretation of Genesis Concluding Remarks Sources of the Texts and Editorial Conventions Illustrations Critical Edition of Cordemoy's Lettre Notes Index of Names Bibliography