BAKKER Frederik A., BELLIS Delphine & PALMERINO Carla Rita (éds). Space, Imagination and the Cosmos from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. New York, Springer International Publishing, 2018, 291 p.
Editor's presentation:
This volume provides a much needed, historically accurate narrative of the development of theories of space up to the beginning of the eighteenth century. It studies conceptions of space that were implicitly or explicitly entailed by ancient, medieval and early modern representations of the cosmos. The authors reassess Alexandre Koyré’s groundbreaking work From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (1957) and they trace the permanence of arguments to be found throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. By adopting a long timescale, this book sheds new light on the continuity between various cosmological representations and their impact on the ontology and epistemology of space.
Readers may explore the work of a variety of authors including Aristotle, Epicurus, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, John Wyclif, Peter Auriol, Nicholas Bonet, Francisco Suárez, Francesco Patrizi, Giordano Bruno, Libert Froidmont, Marin Mersenne, Pierre Gassendi, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Samuel Clarke. We see how reflections on space, imagination and the cosmos were the product of a plurality of philosophical traditions that found themselves confronted with, and enriched by, various scientific and theological challenges which induced multiple conceptual adaptations and innovations.
This volume is a useful resource for historians of philosophy, those with an interest in the history of science, and particularly those seeking to understand the historical background of the philosophy of space.
Table of contents:
- Space, Imagination and the Cosmos, from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period: Introduction
Bakker F. A., Bellis D. & Palmerino C. R.
- Aristotle's Account of Place in Physics 4: Some Puzzles and Some Reactions
Algra, K.
- The End of Epicurean Infinity: Critical Reflections on the Epicurean Infinite Universe
Bakker, F. A.
- Space and Movement in Medieval Thought: The Angelological Shift
Suarez-Nani, T.
- Mathematical and Metaphysical Space in the Early Fourteenth Century
Duba, W. O.
- Space, Imagination, and Numbers in John Wyclif's Mathematical Theology
Robert, A.
- Francisco Suárez and Francesco Patrizi: Metaphysical Investigations on Place and Space
Ribordy, O.
- Giordano Bruno's Concept of Space: Cosmological and Theological Aspects
Granada, M. Á.
- Libert Froidmont's Conception and Imagination of Space in Three Early Works: Peregrinatio cœlestis (1616), De cometa (1618), Meteorologica (1627)
Pantin, I.
- Questioning Fludd, Kepler and Galileo: Mersenne's Harmonius Universe
Fabbri, N.
-Imaginary Spaces and Cosmological Issues in Gassendi's Philsophy
Bellis, D.
- Space, Imagination and the Cosmos in the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
Palmerino, C. R.
- Correction to: The End of Epicurean Infinity: Critical Reflections on the Epicurean Infinite Universe
Bakker, F. A.