Innovations in the cartesian meteors: ruptures with Aristotelianism

• Grant number: 21/10222-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: February 13, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Fátima Regina Rodrigues Évora
• Grantee: Thiago Henrique Rosales Marques
• Supervisor: Daniel Garber
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Princeton University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/01323-4 - Tradition and innovation in René Descartes' Les Météores: between rupture with Aristotelianism and continuity with scholastic thought, BP.DR

Abstract

In this project, I aim to discuss the innovative aspects of Cartesian Natural Philosophy as expressed in Les Météores. For that, I take as study cases (1) questions that emerge from the use of the Cartesian method in the particular essays, also (2) Descartes' removal of comets and metals from the scope of meteorology, and finally, (3) the role of exhalations and mixtures in the scope of Descartes's description of meteorological events. I consider this subject through the light of the Cartesian mechanist project, evaluating the main aspects of its rupture with the Aristotelian-based description of nature. This rupture, despite anti-Aristotelian rhetorics, is not self-evident. For, on the one hand, Descartes presents a set of discourses devoted to a mechanical description of nature against the hylomorphic alternative, an exemplification (échantillon) of his philosophy. On the other hand, the philosopher keeps some theoretical tools also employed by scholastics in description of the meteorological phenomena. (AU)