Front cover image for Gassendi, the atomist : advocate of history in an age of science

Gassendi, the atomist : advocate of history in an age of science

This account of Gassendi's life and work offers a provocatively new perspective from which to view the influence of humanism on seventeenth-century thought. As Professor Joy makes clear, his reform of philosophy raised questions about the aims of science, which we ourselves are still asking.
Print Book, English, 1987
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [Cambridgeshire], 1987
History
xiii, 311 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521301428, 0521301424
15629322
Other atomists, other skeptics, and other Epicureans : the problem of determining the context of Gassendi's career
Refuting Aristotle is not enough : how to acquire the skills of a French humanist
Gassendi's Life of Peiresc : the humanist's unattainable goal of writing a universal history
The growth of Gassendi's Epicurean project : from biography and commentary to a history of philosophy
Unrecognized cultural baggage : the incoherence of contemporary debates about atoms
Uncertainties of observation and explanation : the role of optical anomalies in astronomy
Skepticism is based on bad history : Gassendi interprets Epicurus' arguments concerning the existence and qualities of atoms
Epicurus' conception of proof and Gassendi's historical justification of an atomist metaphysics and physics
Between culture and nature : was Gassendi a historian, a scientist, an empiricist?