Honoré Fabri and the Concept of Impetus: A Bridge Between Conceptual Frameworks

2011. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-94-007-1604-9
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 262 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 565 g

Reihe: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

This book discusses the impetus-based physics of the Jesuit natural philosopher and mathematician Honoré Fabri (1608-1688), a senior representative of Jesuit scientists during the period between Galileo's death (1642) and Newton's Principia (1687). It shows how Fabri, while remaining loyal to a general Aristotelian outlook, managed to reinterpret the old concept of “impetus” in such a way as to assimilate into his physics building blocks of modern science, like Galileo’s law of fall and Descartes’ principle of inertia. This account of Fabri’s theory is a novel one, since his physics is commonly considered as a dogmatic rejection of the New Science, not essentially different from the medieval impetus theory. This book shows how New Science principles were taught in Jesuit Colleges in the 1640s, thus depicting the sophisticated manner in which new ideas were settling within the lion’s den of Catholic education.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Elazar, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: Neuzeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

References to Fabri's Works - Honoré Fabri: A Short Biography. - Introduction. - 1. Basic Concepts - 2. Fabri and the "Second Galileo Affair". - 3. Fabri and Conservation of Rectilinear Motion. - 4. Fabri's Impetus and the Eucharist. - Conclusion - Appendix: The Proof of Convergence to Galileo's Law of Fall. - Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Elazar, Michael
Michael Elazar, formerly an aeronautical engineer, scientific editor of Hed-Artzi/Ma’ariv Publishing House, and Editor-in-Chief of "Galileo: Israeli Periodical on Science and Thought", received a Master's degree (1999) and a Ph.D. degree (2010) from the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University. His Ph.D. dissertation, upon which this book is based, was supervised by Professor Rivka Feldhay and focused on the Jesuit philosopher and mathematician Honoré Fabri (1608-1688). Elazar continues his research into seventeenth-century Jesuit physics as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. He also serves as an assistant editor of the Cambridge Journal "Science in Context".