In 1675, Burchard de Volder (1643–1709) was the first professor to introduce the demonstration of experiment into a university physics course and built the Leiden Physics Theatre to accommodate this new pedagogy. When he requested the funds from the university to build the facility, he claimed that the performance of experiments would demonstrate the “truth and certainty” of the postulates of theoretical physics. Such a claim is interesting given de Volder’s lifelong commitment to Cartesian scientia. This chapter will examine de (...) Volder’s views on experiment and show that they are not Newtonian or inductivist, as is sometimes claimed. While de Volder thinks we need deductive reasoning from first principles to provide evidence of the certainty of the content of our physical theories, he also contends that we need experiment to provide evidence of the certainty of the existence of the particular bodies those theories discuss. This approach to experiment is based on a distinction between rational certainty and the certainty of material bodies in the actual world. While this account is deeply influenced by Descartes, it is importantly different than Descartes’ distinction between absolute and moral certainty. De Volder’s “Cartesian Empiricism” is best understood as a continuation and further development of a long tradition of teaching through observation at Leiden. (shrink)

L’articolo si propone di analizzare la presenza di Descartes nella Critica della ragion pura, con particolare attenzione ai paralogismi della psicologia razionale e alla confutazione dell’idealismo. L’aspetto più rilevante dell’analisi kantiana non concerne l’interpretazione del pensiero cartesiano fornita dal filosofo tedesco, data la scarsa conoscenza che Kant possedeva dei testi di Descartes. Ad essere interessante, al contrario, soprattutto se considerata alla luce della sua successiva ricezione, è l’immagine di Descartes che emerge dalle pagine della Critica. A questo riguardo, è possibile (...) affermare che Kant abbia contribuito al ritorno sulla scena del pensiero tedesco del Descartes metafisico, una maschera filosofica che svolgerà un ruolo centrale nella ricostruzione della storia della filosofia proposta dall’idealismo post-kantiano. (shrink)