Physiologia: Natural Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought

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Cornell University Press, 2000 - 426 pages

Sixteenth-century Aristotelianism was the culmination of four centuries of commentary and criticism. Physiologia is one of the first books to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to that tradition in natural philosophy. In an incisive and readable treatment, Dennis Des Chene illuminates the continuities and disruptions between medieval and modern philosophy and promotes a new understanding of the philosophical setting in which modern notions of science emerged.

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Contents

Natural Change
17
Motus Potentia Actus
21
21 Potentia and Actus
24
22 Independent Existence of Motus
34
23 Action and Passion
40
24 Active and Passive Potentice
46
Form Privation and Substance
53
31 Principles of Change
55
62 Existence of Ends
177
63 Character of the Final Cause
186
64 Teleological Reasoning
200
Nature and Counternature
212
71 The Uses of Nature
213
72 Individual Natures
227
73 Artifacts Human and Divine
239
Bodies in Motion
253

32 Substantial Form and Prime Matter
64
33 Form as Substance
76
Matter Quantity and Figure
81
41 The Essence of Matter
83
42 Quantity and Prime Matter
97
43 Figure and Other Qualities
109
The Structure of Physical Substance
122
51 Matter and Form Distinguished
124
52 Substantial Union
134
Dispositions
138
54 Substantial Form and Active Powers
157
Finality and Final Causes
168
61 Varieties of End
171
Motion and Its Causes
255
81 The Definition and Mode of Existence of Motion
257
82 Persistence Conatus and Quantity of Motion
272
The Problem of Force
312
Parts of Matter
342
91 Extensive Quantity and the Nature of Matter
345
92 Substance and Space
354
the Sufficiency of Extension
377
World without Ends
391
Bibliography
399
Secondary Sources
406
Index
415
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Page 1 - Si les phénomènes ne sont pas enchaînés les uns aux autres, il n'ya point de philosophie. Les phénomènes seraient tous enchaînés, que l'état de chacun d'eux pourrait être sans permanence. Mais si l'état des êtres est dans une vicissitude perpétuelle ; si la nature est encore à l'ouvrage, malgré la chaîne qui lie les phénomènes, il n'ya point de philosophie. Toute notre science...

About the author (2000)

Dennis Des Chene is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in Saint Louis.

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