Title

Early Natural Philosophy Methodological Approach

Abstract

The end of the XVIth century and the beginning of the XVIIth is a period characterised by historiographers as a significant change on the study of Nature. Qualitative arguments are being replaced by quantitative ones and magnitude measurements become more and more precise. For a long-time historiography has maintained a hypothesis of an intrinsic relationship between the mathematization of nature and the precise measurement of time. This presentation is a case study on the emergence of Natural Philosophy and more particularly on the relation between the creation of a physical theory and the accuracy in time measurements, Galileo’s work and correspondence will be re-examined. Through the study proposed here, by contextualizing the results of measurements that appeared in the texts, which influenced great scholars of the XVIIth century, we will examine the truth of this historiographical proposal. The aim of the presentation is to demonstrate how with a contextualized methodological approach, historians can bring new light to older historical conclusions.

References

• Drake S (1978) Galileo at Work. Dover Publications, New York.
• Galilei G ([1632] 1992), Dialogue sur les deux grands systèmes du monde, traduit par René Fréreux. Seuil, Paris.
• Galilei G ([1638] 1995) Discours concernant deux sciences nouvelles, introduction, traduction, notes et index par Maurice Clavelin. PUF, Paris.
• Galilei G (1898) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 8. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 453-455.
• Galilei G (1901) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 11. Barbera, Firenze, p. 610.
• Galilei G (1906) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 17. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 413-414.  
• Galileo G (1904) Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Vol. 14. Barbera, Firenze, pp. 342-344.
• Gapaillard J (1993) Et pourtant elle tourne : Le mouvement de la Terre. Seuil, Paris.  
• Koyré A (1973) Chute des corps et mouvement de la terre de Kepler à Newton. Vrin, Paris.
• Locher JG (1614) Disquisitiones mathematicae, de controversiis et novitatibus astronomicis, Ingolstadii : ex typographeo Ederiano apud Elisabetham Angermariam.
• Mersenne M (1634) Traité des Mouvemens, et de la chuete des corps pesans, & et de la proportion de leurs differentes vitesses. Dans laquelle l’on verra plusieurs experiences très exactes. Paris : Chez Jacques Villery, avec le privilege du Roy.
• Mersenne M (1636-37) Harmonie Universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique. Cramoisy, Paris.
• Mersenne M (1959) « Lettre No. 404, Mersenne à Paris, à Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc, à Aix, 15 Janvier 1635 ». In : Correspondance, De Waard C (ed), CNRS, Paris, Tome V:24-26.
• Moscovici S (1967) L’expérience du mouvement. Hermann Paris.

Contact

• meropi.morfouli@obspm.fr