Pierre Gassendi: From Aristotelianism to a New Natural Philosophy

260 Pages·1987·6.59 MB·English

by  Barry Brundell (auth.)

PIERRE GASSENDI
SYNTHESE HISTORICAL LIBRARY
TEXTS AND STUDIES IN THE HIS TOR Y OF
LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY
Editors:
N. KRETZMANN, Cornell University
G. NUCHELMANS, University ofL eyden
Editorial Board:
J. BERG, Munich Institute of Technology
L. M. DE RUK, University of Leyden
D. P. HENR Y, University ofM anchester
J. HINTIKKA, Florida State University, Tallahassee
B. MATES, University of California, Berkeley
J. E. MURDOCH, Harvard University
G. PATZIG, UniversityofG6ttingen
VOLUME 30
BARRY BRUNDELL
Saint Paul's National Seminary, Sydney, Australia
PIERRE GASSENDI
From Aristotelianism
to a New Natural Philosophy
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHTjBOSTONjLANCASTERjTOKYO
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Brundell, Barry, 1939-
Pierre Gassendi:From Aristotelianism to a new natural philosophy.
(Synthese historical library; v. 30)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Gassendi, Pierre, 1592-1655. 2. Aristotle-Influence. 3. Epicurus
Influence. r. Title. II. Series.
B1887.B84 1987 194 86-31348
ISBN-l3: 978-94-010-8187-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-3793-2
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-3793-2
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada
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In all other countries, sold and distributed
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All Rights Reserved
© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st 1987
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
To the memory of Nellie and Rupe. our parents.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction
Pierre Gassendi I
Manuscripts and published works 2
Bibliographical survey 5
Chapter I. Sceptical anti -Aristotelianism 15
Chapter 2. Copernican anti-Aristotelianism 30
Chapter 3. Epicurean anti-Aristotelianism 48
Epicureanism as substitute for Aristotelianism 51
I. Matter and its modes 54
2. Eternity of the world 60
3. Infinite space 61
4. Causality 69
5. Celestial motion 76
Chapter 4. Empirical anti-Aristotelianism 83
I. Logical writings: from Aristotelian dialectic to
Epicurean canonic 84
2. Cognition: the physical and physiological processes 86
3. Cognition: the 'psychological' processes 91
4. Empirical anti-Aristotelianism 98
5. The 'sceptical crisis' 104
Chapter 5. "A truer philosophy" 108
1. Atoms and the void 113
2. The substance of physical causes 118
3. Obscurity vanquished 133
Conclusion 137
Notes 144
Bibliography 228
Index 246
PREFACE
Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) lived in three civilizations in the span of one
life-time: medieval ecclesiastic, Renaissance humanist and modern
scientific; and he never cut himself loose from any of them. It is probably
because he managed to be at home in all three that history has allocated to
him a position somewhere on the fringe of the inner circle of genius in the
seventeenth-century scientific revolution. While he was not a front-runner,
Gassendi was nevertheless a pioneer of modern corpuscularianism and his
influence on the development of empirical science was truly international.
It is precisely because Gassendi was a figure of the second rank - a
significant but lesser luminary - that we need to examine his work closely,
for the less famous contemporaries help us to explain what the great ones
do. It might seem that Gassendi has received his share of attention from
scholars, even though it is sometimes suggested otherwise. Several full
length monographs have been published in the past three decades, and there
have been a number of articles in scholarly journals. Yet, despite the
indisputable worth of these studies, the picture of Gassendi that has
emerged from them has been partial and at times wide of the mark, so that
the true story remains to be told. The reason for offering this study,
therefore, is that it aims to present, if not the definitively true account, at
least a "truer" account than has hitherto been given of the work of this
well-known but inadequately understood architect of the mechanical
philosophy. Philosopher of the more probable that he was, Gassendi would
entirely approve of the aim; one hopes that he would also approve of the
conclusions.
This book should be of interest to scholars and students of the history
and philosophy of science, and to anyone who has an interest in the
intellectual history of the seventeenth century. The focus of the study is
Gassendi's design to bring about what amounted to a revolution in natural
philosophy, and the cultural background of the late Renaissance and early
modern era are presented as the context which goes far towards making his
radical ambitions intelligible.
The aim has been to study Gassendi's work in the light of his own
avowed goals. To achieve that aim a new effort has been made to interpret
his almost completely neglected early manuscripts. Particular attention has
been paid to some of the more significant developments and modifications
of his philosophical positions that are to be discerned by comparing the
ix
x PREFACE
contents of the manuscripts with the later, published version of his
philosophy. The conclusions reached by these efforts amount to a new
interpretation of Gassendi and his philosophy: Gassendi was not a
philosopher who made Epicureanism respectable; nor was he a materialist
malgre lui; nor was he a collaborator with Marin Mersenne in resisting a
sceptical crisis. He was essentially an anti-Aristotelian promoter of
Epicureanism, the philosophy which he deemed more suitable for the needs
of the seventeenth century, both for supporting the Christian faith and for
enabling philosophers to participate in and contribute to the progress of the
new experimental and observational sciences.
lowe a debt of gratitude to many people. Many scholars have given
generously of their time, advice and support; in particular I wish to thank
Dr D.R. Oldroyd, Dr O.R. Bloch, Dr A.C. Crombie and Dr J.A. Schuster
for their assistance, and my friends and former teachers in the School of
History and Philosophy of Science in the University of New South Wales
for providing a community of scholarship. I acknowledge with heartfelt
thanks the help that I have received from library staffs in a number of
places: at the University of New South Wales, the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris, the Bibliotheque Municipale, Tours, the Bodleian Library, the
University Library and Whipple Library, Cambridge. Finally, I thank my
fellow-staff members and the students of St Paul's National Seminary,
Sydney, who have given me the space to bring this project to its
completion.
INTRODUCTION
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi was born in a hill-top village named Champtercier, a few
kilometres from Digne in Provence, on the 22nd January, 1592. His father
Antoine and mother Francoise were worthy but undistinguished village
folk. Gassendi received his early education in the humanities in Digne and
Riez, and at the age of twelve years he received tonsure from the Bishop, a
rite which signified admission to the clerical state. Thereafter, the rest of
his formal education formed part of his training for ordination to the
Catholic priesthood and was supervised by the Church authorities. He
studied Aristotelian philosophy and Catholic theology for the next eight
years (1604-1611) at the college of Aix-en-Provence.
Gassendi was a very gifted student. He held the chair of rhetoric at
Digne from the age of sixteen, while still completing his own studies. In
1614 he received his doctorate in theology at Avignon, and was thereupon
made theologal, or official diocesan teacher of theology and superintendent
of theological education. When the chairs of theology and philosophy at Aix
fell vacant in the year 1616 Gassendi became a candidate and won both
chairs. He chose philosophy. In the same year he was ordained a priest.
For the next six years Gassendi occupied the chair of Aristotelian
philosophy at Aix. But then his teaching came to an abrupt halt, for the
Bishop elected at that time to bring in the Jesuits and to assign the college
to their care. This change evidently constituted a tardy implementation of
the reform of seminaries decreed by the Council of Trent.1 As a
consequence, Gassendi, along with the rest of the academic staff, found
himself without a teaching post. The change was effected with some
measure of inconvenience according to one account:
The Jesuit fathers just came into the town and took over the
school. He [Gassendi] was obliged to complete his course ...
in the St Ivan quarter [where] his friend M. Bergamon, at
that time a Canon of Aix, gave him a large room in his own
house for the purpose. 2
Thereafter, Gassendi had no further involvement in the scholastic system
of education. Instead he devoted himself to what he termed "genuine"
philosophy - of the kind that is cultivated by very few, in obscurity and
silence.s His home base continued to be the Chapter of the Cathedral
2 PIERRE GASSENDI
ofDigne, of which he had been a member Canon since his student days. He
was finally appointed provost of the Cathedral in 1634, after ten years of
litigation, and this was to be his official ecclesiastical position throughout
the remainder of his life.
Gassendi did not need much money: he lived a frugal, possibly even
vegetarian4 life-style, and could always depend on the devoted support of
wealthy friends. Consequently, he was able to devote himself to a life of
study and writing that was relatively free of interruptions.
In 1645 Gassendi reluctantly accepted the chair of mathematics at the
College Royal upon the insistence of the patron of the College, the Cardinal
of Lyons. Ill-health forced Gassendi to leave his chair and the city of Paris
after the first academic year.
Gassendi died, fortified by the last rites of the Church, in the year 1655,
at the age of sixty-three. He was carried off by a pulmonary infection,
rendered fatal by a total of fourteen bleedings.
Gassendi was much acclaimed during his life, and his influence was
considerable in the seventeenth century. Though his star faded thereafter,
the town of Digne, with its 'boulevard Gassendi' and a statue of the
philosopher in the main square, and the village of Champtercier, with its
'rue Gassendi', keep his memory alive to this day.5
Manuscripts and published works
Gassendi's first publication was the Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus
Aristoteleos Bk. 1 (1624).6 A second book of the same work was ready for
publication in 1624, but was withheld from publication until it appeared
posthumously in the Opera omnia which was published in 1658.7 After 1624
Gassendi's working life was predominantly devoted to the task of restoring
the philosophy of Epicurus. He first mentioned his studies on Epicurean
philosophy in his correspondence in a letter to his patron and friend
Peiresc, written in 1626,8 and the fruits of these studies began to appear as
manuscript writings on the philosophy of Epicurus a couple of years later,9
though none of these very early manuscripts seems to have been preserved.
In 1629 Gassendi made a new translation of Book X of the Vitae
philosophorum of Diogenes Laertius, and this translation was published
with notes at the head of a work entitled Animadversiones in decimum
librum Diogenis Laertii (1649).10 In 1631 Gassendi described in a letter to
Peirescll a first version of his Epicurean philosophy which was already
more than half finished. It contained an apologia for Epicurus, the De vita
et moribus Epicuri, an expanded version of which was published in 1647,12
one book on Epicurean canonic (or logic), and more than two books of a
projected four books of physica. The actual manuscripts of this 1631
version have not been preserved. Consequently Gassendi's first version of