This book traces the intellectual revolution initiated by Thales in the sixth century BC to its culmination in the metaphysics of Parmenides.

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Francesco Patrizi da Cherso's Discussiones peripateticae (1581) are one of the most comprehensive analyses of the whole of Aristotelian philosophy to be published before Werner Jaeger's Aristoteles. The main thrust of the argument in the Discussiones is that whatever Aristotle had said that was true was not new, and that whatever he had said that was new was not true. The article shows how Patrizi proves this with respect to the Organon, and deals with the implications for the history af (...) ancient philosophy in general implied by his stance. (shrink)

This study considers the contribution of Francesco Patrizi da Cherso to the development of the concepts of void space and an infinite universe. Patrizi plays a greater role in the development of these concepts than any other single figure in the sixteenth century, and yet his work has been almost totally overlooked. I have outlined his views on space in terms of two major aspects of his philosophical attitude: on the one hand, he was a devoted Platonist and sought always (...) to establish Platonism, albeit his own version of it, as the only currect philosophy; and on the other hand, he was more determinedly anti-Aristotelian than any other philosopher at that time. Patrizi's concept of space has its beginnings in Platonic notions, but is extended and refined in the light of a vigorous critique of Aristotle's position. Finally, I consider the influence of Patrizi's ideas in the seventeenth century, when various thinkers are seeking to overthrow the Aristotelian concept of place and the equivalence of dimensionality with corporeality. Pierre Gassendi , for example, needed a coherent concept of void space in which his atoms could move, while Henry More sought to demonstrate the reality of incorporeal entities by reference to an incorporeal space. Both men could find the arguments they needed in Patrizi's comprehensive treatment of the subject. (shrink)

Le De spacio physico et mathematico a été publié par Patrizi en 1587 à Ferrare et reproduit, avec quelques explications, dans la Nova de universis philosophia dont la première édition est datée de Ferrare 1591 et la seconde de Venise 1593. Consacré à l'espace, ce texte s'insère dans le travail critique poursuivi par les philosophes de la Renaissance (et en particulier les Platoniciens) pour dépasser les principes de la cosmologie aristotélicienne. Point d'aboutissement d'un mouvement conduisant à l'infinitisation de l'univers, à (...) l'abandon des hiérarchies et du dualisme traditionel, ce petit livre, dans ses audaces et ses limites, traduit assez fidèlement l'état d'un certain nombre de recherches philosophiques de la fin du xvie. Il montre que s'il fut relativement aisé de formuler l'idée d'un espace vide et infini, il fut part contre difficile de déterminer les rapports de la pensée mathématique et de la pensée physique : le réalisme du point et de la ligne, hérité de la tradition pythagoricienne, élève une barrière infranchissable devant toute recherche neuve sur la division du continu à l'infini. Comme ces faiblesses ne sont pas propres à Patrizi - nous les avons retrouvées ailleurs chez Bruno -, elles doivent être considérées comme des limites d'une certaine philosophie, novatrice et critique en cosmologie, naïvement réaliste en géométrie et en algèbre. (shrink)

Francesco Patrizi da Cherso's Discussiones peripateticae are one of the most comprehensive analyses of the whole of Aristotelian philosophy to be published before Werner Jaeger's Aristoteles. The main thrust of the argument in the Discussiones is that whatever Aristotle had said that was true was not new, and that whatever he had said that was new was not true. The article shows how Patrizi proves this with respect to the Organon, and deals with the implications for the history af ancient (...) philosophy in general implied by his stance. (shrink)