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How the world lost its centre: The relation of truths and facts in Middle Ages and early modernity
No full textIn the Middle Ages, it was commonly accepted that Jerusalem was the centre of the (inhabited) world. This was proven not just from Biblical sentences, but also from an alleged empirical fact: people claimed that in Jerusalem at noon during the summer solstice a vertical pole throws no shadow, the sun being in its zenith. This is not true and even it if were, it would not prove anything. This should have been easy to grasp for an educated medieval person; still, the claim was repeated over and over again. Only at the end of the fifteenth century, it suddenly became subject to investigation and criticism, whereupon it quickly became completely obsolete. The reasons for this shift are not completely clear, but the growing availability of information likely played a role. The episode demon- strates both the importance and the unimportance of em- pirical facts in the Middle Ages. Jerusalem\u27s central position was not just the symbolic representation of a spiritual truth, it was considered empirically true as well; but this fact was not critically evaluated. The “truth” of Jerusalem\u27s centrality dictated what “facts” were credible. The questioning of these presumed facts at the end of the fifteenth century should therefore be regarded as an important turning point in European intellectual history. After all, the realization that truths must be based on inde- pendent facts is a basic precondition of modern science
Lightning in a Wine Cask: Vernacular Meteorology and Terminology in the Goodly Gallerye of William Fulke
No full textLightning and thunderbolts have been sources of wonder since classical antiquity. Interpretations of these aerial and destructive phenomena had roots in the Homeric tradition and further evolved in the meteorological writings of Aristotle and others. In Aristotelian and early encyclopedic writings, lightning and thunderbolts were explained as different manifestations of the dry exhalation or wind. Writers categorized thunderbolts based on their subtlety, speed, and effects. In the sixteenth cen- tury, William Fulke viewed thunderbolts similarly to his antique predecessors but interpreted wondrous aspects and categorizations in light of the scientific and religious convictions of Elizabethan England. His English meteorological text, Goodly Gallerye, demonstrates an attempt to standardize terminology in the vernacular while also maintaining continuity in descriptions and interpretations of lightning and thunderbolts. This continuity can also be seen in subsequent writers on lightning and thunderbolts who used chymical theories of meteorology
Francesco Ingoli’s Relazione delle Quattro Parti del Mondo: Charting New Pathways in the History of Political Thought
No full textIn this paper, I explore new research paths to reevaluate the significance of Francesco Ingoli as a political thinker. This reassessment is conducted through a philosophical and conceptual analysis of his work as the General Secretary of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. I focus particularly on his Relazione delle Quattro Parti del Mondo (circa 1631), a text where Ingoli merges data from missionary reports and scholarly treatises with his own insights on global geography, politics, and anthropology proposing an innovative perspective on newly discovered regions. Despite the importance of Ingoli’s work, attesting to the deep resemantisation of political space that resulted from 16th and 17th-century geographical discoveries, an in-depth assessment of his political thought from the perspective of political philosophy is still largely missing. In particular, by means of an enquiry into the Church’s efforts in adapting evangelization strategies across different regions of the world, including the development of a cosmopolitan and multilingual clergy, and the gathering of detailed information on the geographical, cultural, and ethnic characteristics of each area, sometimes even through indigenous correspondents, I intend to point out possible ways to explore the global interconnections that emerged at the dawn of early modernity. Finally, this paper aims to shed new light on the impact of extra-European contributions on Western culture, as well as on Early Modernity as a global and multipolar phenomenon, characterized by cultural hybridization and reciprocal transfer
Paving the Way of Ideas: Pierre Gassendi’s Epistemology and Its Reception up to Locke
No full textThis paper aims to outline some features of Pierre Gassendi’s epistemology and its reception in John Locke. To do so, I will also analyze a few potential intermediaries between Gassendi and Locke, that is, the socalled Port-Royal Logic and Gilles de Launay’s Essais logiques. Then, I will address Locke’s manuscript drafts of his well-known Essay, showing the extent to which he endorses Gassendi’s objections to Descartes. According to the present interpretation, Gassendi’s epistemology is mainly a polemical weapon for Locke. Accordingly, the present tentative inquiry aims to place Locke’s ‘New Way of Ideas’ in a wider context of anti-Cartesian claims. Ironically, the framework in which both Gassendi and Locke articulated these anti-Cartesian claims is entirely Cartesian, resulting from his epistemological shift towards ideas
The Persistence of Tychonism
No full textTychonism, if it is considered at all in histories of the Copernican Revolution, is briefly acknowledged as an alternative cosmic scheme, but seldom mentioned as an active tradition extending into the seventeenth century. I will make a case that it lasted into the eighteenth centu- ry. In this paper I will consider astronomers, almanac makers and natural philosophers who adopted and spread Tychonism. I will summarize and supplement the ac- counts of Carolino (2023) and Kallinen (1995) who doc- ument sequences of Tychonists in Lisbon, Portugal and Turku, Finland, respectively. I will then argue that Maria Cunitz (1610-1664) declares herself a Tychonist in her celebrated book Urania Propitia (1650). The same con- siderations emphasize the importance of Christian Longomontanus’ (1562-1647) Astronomia Danica (1622) as a resource for Tychonism. I will conclude by examin- ing a few almanac makers who adopted Tychonism, some of whom used Longomontanus. I offer corrections to ear- lier accounts of Tychonism, especially Schofield (1984). In conclusion I will suggest that the historical longevity of Tychonism has been considerably underestimated and al- so that Tychonists were not generally restrained from public endorsement of heliocentrism by religious pres- sure. On the contrary, I suggest that the continued ac- ceptance of Tychonism was conditioned by its congru- ence with scientists’ religious beliefs
Decoding narratives on halo phenomena: an approach to Tycho Brahe\u27s Vision of Urania in De nova stella (1573)
No full textThe booklet De nova stella, published by Tycho Brahe in 1573, contains various texts, some of which have little to do with the stellar explosion known today as a supernova: Towards the end there is a poem In Uraniam Elegia Autoris, 232 verses long, in which Tycho condenses a visionary encounter with the goddess of the muses, Urania. But who or what is "Urania"? Is it just a literary fiction, an allegory of the supernova, an epiphany in the style of Ovid, a self-reflection projected onto the outside world? In a close reading, text passages that have re- ceived less attention so far are decoded - the evidence found in the process makes it clear: Tycho\u27s "Urania" has a fundamentum in re. An hitherto underexposed side of the Renaissance scholar becomes visible: Tycho Brahe as a gifted observer of rare meteorological phenomena, who stands in the tradition of halo visionaries. The first part of the article attempts to provide an introduction to this complex subject
Rossella Fabbrichesi, Il primo libro di filosofia teoretica (Torino: Einaudi, 2023).: storia dei concetti e della loro evoluzione
No full textMetaphysics, ontology, phenomenology, epistemology, hermeneutics and genealogy: these areas, despite their diversity, revolve around the same themes and communicate with each other. The latter take on a different character depending on the way in which they are approached: for example the notions of essence and "thing in itself" will indicate something very different if considered first in the ontological context, then in the genealogical one. The very conception of truth seems to differ depending on the context. If in antiquity the being of things was considered indubitable, in modernity only the subject could be said to be such, or at least the constitutive and original relationship that existed between the subjective and objective polarity. Then, especially with analytical thinking, it was clarified that ontological questions cannot be asked without preliminary consideration of the language being used (Quine). This and much more is explained in this volume, in light of different perspectives. A general look at every notion, which, intertwining with the others, weaves the theoria on which everything should be based and in which everything should find its foundation.
 
Juan Luis Vives on Study Notebooks: Education, Language and Epistemic Value
No full textThis paper outlines Juan Luis Vives’ (1493-1540) instructions for the creation and management of a study notebook, contained in his De ratione studii puerilis Epistolae duae (1524) and De disciplinis (1531). It aims to show that this set of rules went beyond educational purposes, as it was consistent with Vives\u27 conception of knowledge, and in particular with the characteristics that he attributed to language. Recent studies have rightly pointed out that his ideas about knowledge and language were in line with the anti-scholastic trend of the time, which sought to move philosophical reflection from the abstract and metaphysical to the concrete and empirical. The paper argues that Vives\u27 reflections on notebooks and note-taking were part of the same project, since his notebook was the main ground for organizing the empirical level of knowledge
Pietro Del Soldà, Sulle ali degli amici. Una filosofia dell’incontro (Venezia: Marsilio editori, 2020).
No full textSulle ali degli amici. Una filosofia dell\u27incontro - Pietro del Sold
Jeanette Winterson, 12 bytes. Come siamo arrivati in qui, dove potremmo finire in futuro, (Milano: Mondadori, 2023).
No full text"12 bytes. How we got here, where we might go next" is a publication by the english author Jeanette Winterson. The book is a series of thirteen essays divided in four chapters where Winterson analyzes the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its possible future development. Starting from the past, precisely from the First Industrial Revolution, the author intend to illustrate the problem that this particular period introduced and how they could have been avoided. In particular she focus on the unease of workers and women life in the UK questioning the readers to learn from history and asking to dedicate ourself to erase old problems in the future application of technology. She also analyzes the similarities between AI and religion, arguing (and hoping for) the possibilities that AI will follow the buddhist teachings of compassion, material detachment and cooperation. The third chapter talks about the relation that humans have and will have in the future with forms of life based on AI, and how this will affect the preexisting relation between woman and man. 12 bytes is a book full of hope, but not indifferent to the "dystopian" aftermath of technology and Winterson insists on the necessity of a radical cultural change of mentality in order to prevent this application from happening.