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Pierre Gassendi

May 06, 2023

Pierre Gassendi (French: [pjɛʁ gasɛ̃di];[5] also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician.[1][6][7] While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the first data on the transit of Mercury in 1631. The lunar crater Gassendi is named after him.

The Reverend

Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi
after Louis-Édouard Rioult
Born(1592-01-22)22 January 1592
Champtercier, Provence
Died24 October 1655(1655-10-24) (aged 63)
Paris, France
EducationUniversity of Aix-en-Provence
University of Avignon (Th.D., 1614)
Era17th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
School
InstitutionsUniversity of Aix-en-Provence
Collège Royal
Main interests
Philosophical logic, physics, ethics
Notable ideas
Calor vitalis (vital heat)
Influences
Influenced

He wrote numerous philosophical works, and some of the positions he worked out are considered significant, finding a way between skepticism and dogmatism. Richard Popkin indicates that Gassendi was one of the first thinkers to formulate the modern "scientific outlook", of moderated skepticism and empiricism. He clashed with his contemporary Descartes on the possibility of certain knowledge. His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity.

Biography

Early life

Gassendi was born at Champtercier, near Digne, in France to Antoine Gassend and Françoise Fabry.[8] His earliest education was entrusted to his maternal uncle, Thomas Fabry, the curé of the church of Champtercier.[9] A youthful prodigy, at a very early age he showed academic potential and attended the collège (the town high school) at Digne, where he displayed a particular aptitude for languages and mathematics. In 1609 he entered the University of Aix-en-Provence, to study philosophy under Philibert Fesaye, O.Carm.[10] at the Collège Royal de Bourbon (the Faculty of Arts of the University of Aix).[11] In 1612 the college of Digne called him to lecture on theology. While at Digne, he travelled to Senez, where he received minor orders from Bishop Jacques Martin. In 1614 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Avignon,[12] and was elected Theologian in the Cathedral Chapter of Digne. On 1 August 1617 he received holy orders from Bishop Jacques Turricella of Marseille.[9] In the same year, at the age of 24, he accepted the chair of philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence, and yielded the chair of theology to his old teacher, Fesaye. Gassendi seems gradually to have withdrawn from theology. He maintained his position as Canon Theologian at Digne, however, and in September 1619, when Bishop Raphaël de Bologne took possession of the diocese of Digne, Gassendi participated and made the speech on behalf of the Chapter.[13]

He lectured principally on the Aristotelian philosophy, conforming as far as possible to the traditional methods while he also followed with interest the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler. He came into contact with the astronomer Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette (1564–1647), the Grand Vicar of the Archbishopric of Aix.[14]

Priesthood

In 1623 the Society of Jesus took over the University of Aix. They filled all positions with Jesuits, so Gassendi was required to find another institution.[15] He left, returning to Digne on 10 February 1623, and then returned to Aix to witness an eclipse of the moon on 14 April and the presence of Mars in Sagittarius on 7 June, from which he returned again to Digne.[16] He travelled to Grenoble on behalf of the Chapter of Digne for a lawsuit, most reluctantly, since he was working on his project on Aristotle's paradoxes.[17] In 1624 he printed the first part of his Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos. A fragment of the second book later appeared in print at The Hague (1659), but Gassendi never composed the remaining five, apparently thinking that the Discussiones Peripateticae of Francesco Patrizzi left little scope for him.

He spent some time with his patron Nicolas Peiresc. After 1628 Gassendi travelled in Flanders and in Holland where he encountered Isaac Beeckman and François Luillier.[17][18] He returned to France in 1631. In 1634 the Cathedral Chapter of Digne had become disgusted at the wasteful behavior of Provost Blaise Ausset, and they voted to replace him. They obtained an arrêt of the Parliament of Aix, dated 19 December 1634, which consented to his deposition and to the election of Gassendi as provost of the Cathedral Chapter. Gassendi was formally installed on 24 December 1634. He held the Provostship until his death in 1655.[19]

During this time he wrote some works, at the insistence of Marin Mersenne. They included his examination of the mystical philosophy of Robert Fludd,[20] an essay on parhelia,[21] and some observations on the transit of Mercury.

1640s

Gassendi then spent some years travelling through Provence with the duke of Angoulême, governor of the region. During this period he wrote only the one literary work, his Life of Peiresc, whose death in 1637 seemed to afflict him deeply;[22] it received frequent reprintings and an English translation. He returned to Paris in 1641, where he met Thomas Hobbes.[23] He gave some informal philosophy classes, gaining pupils or disciples; according to the biographer Grimarest, these included Molière, Cyrano de Bergerac (whose participation in classes is disputed),[24] Jean Hesnault and Claude-Emmanuel Chapelle, son of Lullier.[25][26]

In 1640 Mersenne engaged him in controversy with René Descartes. His objections to the fundamental propositions of Descartes appeared in print in 1641; they appear as the Fifth Set of Objections in the works of Descartes[27] and as a separate edition entitled Disquisitio Metaphysica[28] with rejoinders.[29] Though Descartes is often credited with the discovery of the mind-body problem, Gassendi, reacting to Descartes' mind-body dualism, was the first to state it.[30] Gassendi's tendency towards the empirical school of speculation appears more pronounced here than in any of his other writings. Jean-Baptiste Morin attacked his De motu impresso a motore translato (1642).[22] In 1643 Mersenne also tried to garner support from the German Socinian and advocate of religious tolerance Marcin Ruar. Ruar replied at length that he had already read Gassendi but was in favour of leaving science to science not to the church.[31]

In 1645 he accepted the chair of mathematics in the Collège Royal in Paris, and lectured for several years with great success. In addition to controversial writings on physical questions, there appeared during this period the first of the works for which historians of philosophy remember him. In 1647 he published the well-received treatise De vita, moribus, et doctrina Epicuri libri octo. Two years later appeared his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laërtius.[32] In the same year he had published the more important commentary Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri.[33]

In 1648 ill-health compelled him to give up his lectures at the Collège Royal. Around this time he became reconciled to Descartes, after years of coldness, through the good offices of César d'Estrées.[34]

Death and memorial

He travelled in the south of France, in the company of his protégé, aide and secretary François Bernier, another pupil from Paris. He spent nearly two years at Toulon, where the climate suited him. In 1653 he returned to Paris and resumed his literary work, living in the house of Montmor, publishing in that year lives of Copernicus and of Tycho Brahe. The disease from which he suffered, a lung complaint, had, however, established a firm hold on him. His strength gradually failed, and he died at Paris in 1655. A bronze statue of him (by Joseph Ramus) was erected by subscription at Digne in 1852. A large crater on the moon is named after him.[35]

Scientific achievements

As part of his promotion of empirical methods and his anti-Aristotelian and anti-Cartesian views, he was responsible for a number of scientific 'firsts':

  • He explained parhelia in 1629 as due to ice crystals.
  • In 1631, Gassendi became the first person to observe the transit of a planet across the Sun, viewing the transit of Mercury that Kepler had predicted. In December of the same year, he watched for the transit of Venus, but this event occurred when it was night time in Paris.
  • Use of camera obscura to gauge the apparent diameter of the moon.
  • Dropping stone from mast of ship (in De motu) conserves horizontal momentum, removing an objection to the rotation of the Earth.
  • Measurement of speed of sound (to about 25% accuracy), showing that it is invariant of pitch.
  • Satisfactory interpretation of Pascal's Puy-de-Dôme experiment with a barometer in the late 1640s; this suggested a created vacuum is possible.
  • He asserted and defended (in "Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri", 1649, see Philosophical Writings below) the notion that matter is made of atoms, following Epicurus.

In addition to this he did work on determining longitude via eclipses of the Moon and on improving the Rudolphine Tables. He addressed the issue of free fall in De motu (1642) and De proportione qua gravia decidentia accelerantur (1646).[36]

Writings

 
Romanum calendarium

Edward Gibbon styled him "Le meilleur philosophe des littérateurs, et le meilleur littérateur des philosophes" (The greatest philosopher among literary men, and the greatest literary man among philosophers).

Henri Louis Habert de Montmor published Gassendi's collected works, most importantly the Syntagma philosophicum (Opera, i. and ii.), in 1658 (6 vols., Lyons). Nicolaus Averanius published another edition, also in 6 folio volumes, in 1727. The first two comprise entirely his Syntagma philosophicum; the third contains his critical writings on Epicurus, Aristotle, Descartes, Robert Fludd and Herbert of Cherbury, with some occasional pieces on certain problems of physics; the fourth, his Institutio astronomica, and his Commentarii de rebus celestibus; the fifth, his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laërtius, the biographies of Epicurus, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Tycho Brahe, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg von Peuerbach, and Regiomontanus, with some tracts on the value of ancient money, on the Roman calendar, and on the theory of music, with an appended large and prolix piece entitled Notitia ecclesiae Diniensis; the sixth volume contains his correspondence. The Lives, especially those of Copernicus, Tycho and Peiresc, received much praise.

Exercitationes

The Exercitationes excited much attention, though they contain little or nothing beyond what others had already advanced against Aristotle. The first book expounds clearly, and with much vigour, the evil effects of the blind acceptance of the Aristotelian dicta on physical and philosophical study; but, as occurs with so many of the anti-Aristotelian works of this period, the objections show the usual ignorance of Aristotle's own writings[citation needed]. The second book, which contains the review of Aristotle's dialectic or logic, throughout reflects Ramism in tone and method. One of the objections to Descartes became famous through Descartes's statement of it in the appendix of objections in the Meditations.

Animadversiones

His book Animadversiones, published in 1649, contains a translation of Diogenes Laërtius, Book X on Epicurus, and appeared with a commentary, in the form of the Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri.[36] His labors on Epicurus have historical importance, but he has been criticized for holding doctrines arguably irreconcilable with his strong expressions of empiricism.

In the book, he maintains his maxim "that there is nothing in the intellect which has not been in the senses" (nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu), but he contends that the imaginative faculty (phantasia) is the counterpart of sense, because it involves material images, and therefore is intrinsically material, and that it is essentially the same both in men and brutes. However, he also admits that the classic qualifier of humanity, intellect, which he affirms as immaterial and immortal, comes to an understanding of notions and truths that no effort of sensation or imagination could have attained (Op. ii. 383). He illustrates the capacity to form "general notions"; the conception of universality (ib. 384), which he says brutes never are able to partake in, though they utilize phantasia as truly as men; the notion of God, whom he says we may imagine as corporeal, but understand as incorporeal; and lastly, the reflex by which the mind makes the phenomena and operations within it the objects of its attention.

The English Epicurean Walter Charleton produced an English free adaptation of this book, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charletonia, in 1654.[36]

Syntagma philosophicum

The Syntagma philosophicum sub-divides, according to the usual fashion of the Epicureans, into logic (which, with Gassendi as with Epicurus, is truly canonic), physics and ethics.

The logic contains a sketch of the history of the science De origine et varietate logicae, and is divided into theory of right apprehension (bene imaginari), theory of right judgment (bene proponere), theory of right inference (bene colligere), theory of right method (bene ordinare). The first part contains the specially empirical positions which Gassendi afterwards neglects or leaves out of account. The senses, the sole source of knowledge, supposedly yield us immediate cognition of individual things; phantasy (which Gassendi takes as material in nature) reproduces these ideas; understanding compares these ideas, each particular, and frames general ideas. Nevertheless, he admits that the senses yield knowledge—not of things—but of qualities only, and that we arrive at the idea of thing or substance by inductive reasoning. He holds that the true method of research is the analytic, rising from lower to higher notions; yet he sees and admits that inductive reasoning, as conceived by Francis Bacon, rests on a general proposition not itself proved by induction. The whole doctrine of judgment, syllogism and method mixes Aristotelian and Ramist notions.

In the second part of the Syntagma, the physics, appears the most glaring contradiction between Gassendi's fundamental principles. While approving of the Epicurean physics, he rejects the Epicurean negation of God and particular providence. He states the various proofs for the existence of an immaterial, infinite, supreme Being, asserts that this Being is the author of the visible universe, and strongly defends the doctrine of the foreknowledge and particular providence of God. At the same time he holds, in opposition to Epicureanism, the doctrine of an immaterial rational soul, endowed with immortality and capable of free determination. Friedrich Albert Lange[37] claimed that all this portion of Gassendi's system contains nothing of his own opinions, but is introduced solely from motives of self-defence.

The positive exposition of atomism has much that is attractive, but the hypothesis of the calor vitalis (vital heat), a species of anima mundi (world-soul) which he introduces as a physical explanation of physical phenomena, does not seem to throw much light on the special problems which he invokes it to solve. Nor is his theory of the weight essential to atoms as being due to an inner force impelling them to motion in any way reconcilable with his general doctrine of mechanical causes.

In the third part, the ethics, over and above the discussion on freedom, which on the whole is indefinite, there is little beyond a milder statement of the Epicurean moral code. The final end of life is happiness, and happiness is harmony of soul and body (tranquillitas animi et indolentia corporis). Probably, Gassendi thinks, perfect happiness is not attainable in this life, but it may be in the life to come.

Views

According to Gabriel Daniel, Gassendi was a little Pyrrhonian in matters of science; but that was no bad thing.[38] He wrote against the magical animism of Robert Fludd, and judicial astrology.[39][40] He became dissatisfied with the Peripatetic system, the orthodox approach to natural philosophy based on the writings of Aristotle. Gassendi shared an empirical tendency of the age. He contributed to the objections against Aristotelian philosophy, but waited to publish his own thoughts.

There remains some controversy as to the extent to which Gassendi subscribed to the so-called libertinage érudit, the learned free-thinking that characterised the Tétrade, the Parisian circle to which he belonged, along with Gabriel Naudé and two others (Élie Diodati and François de La Mothe Le Vayer). Gassendi, at least, belonged to the fideist wing of the sceptics, arguing that the absence of certain knowledge implied the room for faith.[41]

In his dispute with Descartes he did apparently hold that the evidence of the senses remains the only convincing evidence; yet he maintains, as is natural from his mathematical training, that the evidence of reason is absolutely satisfactory.

Early commentary

Samuel Sorbière, a disciple,[42] recounts Gassendi's life in the first collected edition of the works, by Joseph Bougerel, Vie de Gassendi (1737; 2nd ed., 1770); as does Jean Philibert Damiron, Mémoire sur Gassendi (1839). An abridgment of his philosophy was given by his friend, the celebrated traveller, François Bernier (Abrégé de la philosophie de Gassendi, 8 vols., 1678; 2nd ed., 7 vols., 1684).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Fisher, Saul (August 28, 2014). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  2. ^ Vere Claiborne Chappell (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke, Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 56.
  3. ^ Peter Harrison, The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science, Cambridge University Press, p. 220: "There has been considerable discussion in the secondary literature about the impact of Boyle's theological voluntatism on his approach to natural philosophy."
  4. ^ Caruso 1981, p. 443.
  5. ^ Léon Warnant (1987). Dictionnaire de la prononciation française dans sa norme actuelle (in French) (3rd ed.). Gembloux: J. Duculot, S. A. ISBN 978-2-8011-0581-8.
  6. ^ Pierre Gassendi. Synthese Historical Library. Vol. 30. 1987. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3793-2. ISBN 978-94-010-8187-0 – via link.springer.com.
  7. ^ "Brundell, B., Pierre Gassendi from Aristotelianism to a New Natural Philosophy, D. Reidel Publishing, 1987" (PDF).
  8. ^ Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  9. ^ a b Fisquet, p. 249.
  10. ^ Bougerel (1737), p. 6.
  11. ^ Ferdinand Belin (1896). Histoire de l'ancienne université de Provence, ou Histoire de la fameuse université d'Aix: période. 1409-1679 (in French). Paris: A. Picard et fils. pp. 183, 340–341.
  12. ^ "Pierre Gassendi - Biography". Maths History.
  13. ^ Fisquet, p. 250.
  14. ^ Bougerel (1737), pp. 8-9. Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Gassendi (Gassend), Pierre, retrieved: 2017-08-02.
  15. ^ J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Pierre Gassendi, retrieved: 2017-08-02[self-published source]
  16. ^ Bougerel, p. 15.
  17. ^ a b Galileo Project page. Bougerel, p. 15.
  18. ^ The Archimedes Project, Gassendi, Pierre (actually Pierre Gassend) 2012-02-20 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved: 2017-08-02.
  19. ^ Fisquet, pp. 248, 252, 256.
  20. ^ Epistolica Exercitatio, in qua precipua principia philosophiae Roberti Fluddi deteguntur, 1631.
  21. ^ Epistola de parheliis.
  22. ^ a b "Gassendi - Pierre Gassendi - Biography - Information - Links - Dr Robert A. Hatch".
  23. ^ Patricia Springborg (editor), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes's Leviathan (2007), p. 422.
  24. ^ "www.paulvates.com". www.paulvates.com.
  25. ^ . Archived from the original on 2009-01-25. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  26. ^ "Encyclopedie de l'Agora".
  27. ^ Nolan, Lawrence (August 28, 2021). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  28. ^ Gassendi, Pierre (1644). Disquisito metaphysica, seu dubitationes et instantiae adversus Renati Cartesii metaphysicam et responsa (in Latin). Vrin.
  29. ^ Descartes, René; Ariew, Roger; Cress, Donald A. (2006-03-10). Meditations, Objections, and Replies. Hackett Publishing. pp. ix. ISBN 978-1-60384-350-8.
  30. ^ Cottinghm, Stoothof, Murdoch, Vol. II, CUP 1984, pp. 234-237
  31. ^ Murr, Sylvia, ed. (1997) (in French), Gassendi et l'Europe, Paris: Vrin, ISBN 978-2-7116-1306-9.
  32. ^ De vita, moribus, et placitis Epicuri, seu Animadversiones in X. librum Diog. Laër. Lyons, 1649; last edition, 1675.
  33. ^ Lyons, 1649; Amsterdam, 1684.
  34. ^ Desmond M. Clarke, Descartes: A Biography (2006), p. 377.
  35. ^ https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/uploads/MoonMap.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  36. ^ a b c Fisher, Saul (2009). "Pierre Gassendi". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  37. ^ Geschichte des Materialismus, 3rd ed., i. 233.
  38. ^ Richard Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza (1979), p. 104.
  39. ^ Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1973), p. 418 and p. 770.
  40. ^ . Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-01-06.
  41. ^ Amesbury, Richard Fideism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 26 September 2012
  42. ^ http://www.webspawner.com/users/alanbailey/scept7z.html

References

Seventeenth to nineteenth-century commentary
  • Bougerel, Joseph (1737). Vie de Pierre Gassendi (in French). Paris: Imprimerie de Jacques Vincent.
  • Johann Gottlieb Buhle, Geschichte der neuern Philosophie, (1802) iii. 1, 87-222
  • Jean Philibert Damiron, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la philosophie au XVIIe siècle (1864)
  • Feuerbach, Ludwig (1833). Geschichte der neuern Philosophie von Bacon von Verulam bis Benedict Spinoza. Ansbach: C. Brügel. pp. 127–150. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
  • Fisquet, Honoré (1864). La France pontificale: Metropole d'Aix: Digne, 1re partie: Digne et Riez (Paris: Étienne Repos 1864).
  • C. Güttler, "Gassend oder Gassendi?" in Archiv für Geschichte d. Philos. x. (1897), pp. 238–242.
  • F. X. Kiefl, P. Gassendis Erkenninistheorie and seine Stellung zum Materialismus (1893) and "Gassendi's Skepticismus" in Philos. Jahrb. vi. (1893)
  • Heinrich Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, (1851) X. 543-571
  • Pierre-Félix Thomas, La Philosophie de Gassendi (Paris, 1889)
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century commentary
  • Caruso, Esther (1981). "Sul nominalismo di Gassendi". Rivista critica di storia della filosofia. 36 (4): 438–450. JSTOR 44022083.
  • Alberti Antonina (1988). Sensazione e realtà. Epicuro e Gassendi, Florence, Leo Olschki. ISBN 88-222-3608-4
  • Olivier Bloch (1971). La philosophie de Gassendi. Nominalisme, matérialisme et métaphysique, La Haye, Martinus Nijhoff, ISBN 90-247-5035-0
  • George Sidney Brett (1908). Philosophy of Gassendi, London, Macmillan
  • Barry Brundell (1987). Pierre Gassendi. From Aristotelianism to a New Natural Philosophy, Dordrecht, Springer
  • Franz Daxecker (2004). The Physicist and Astronomer Christoph Scheiner: Biography, Letters, Works, Innsbruck, Publikations of Innsbruck University 246, ISBN 3-901249-69-9
  • Saul Fisher (2005). Pierre Gassendi's Philosophy and Science, Leiden/Boston, Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11996-3
  • Lynn Sumida Joy (1987). Gassendi the Atomist: Advocate of History in an Age of Science, Cambridge, UK/New York, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52239-0
  • Antonia Lolordo (2007). Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge, UK/New York, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86613-2
  • Marco Messeri (1985). Causa e spiegazione. La fisica di Pierre Gassendi, Milan, Franco Angeli. ISBN 88-204-4045-8
  • Margaret J. Osler (1994). Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy: Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World, Cambridge, UK/New York, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46104-9
  • Rolf W. Puster (1991). Britische Gassendi-Rezeption am Beispiel John Lockes, Frommann-Holzboog. ISBN 3-7728-1362-3
  • Lisa T. Sarasohn (1996). Gassendi's Ethics: Freedom in a Mechanistic Universe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  • Reiner Tack (1974). Untersuchungen zum Philosophie- und Wissenschaftsbegriff bei Pierre Gassendi: (1592–1655), Meisenheim (am Glan), Hain. ISBN 3-445-01103-6
  • Pierre Gassendi (1654). The Life of Copernicus (1473–1543). The Man Who Did Not Change the World, with notes by Oliver Thill, XulonPress, 2002, ISBN 1-59160-193-2 The Life of Copernicus (1473-1543)
Tertiary sources

External links

May 06, 2023
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This article uses bare URLs which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting such as Reflinks documentation reFill documentation and Citation bot documentation August 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Pierre Gassendi French pjɛʁ gasɛ di 5 also Pierre Gassend Petrus Gassendi 22 January 1592 24 October 1655 was a French philosopher Catholic priest astronomer and mathematician 1 6 7 While he held a church position in south east France he also spent much time in Paris where he was a leader of a group of free thinking intellectuals He was also an active observational scientist publishing the first data on the transit of Mercury in 1631 The lunar crater Gassendi is named after him The ReverendPierre GassendiPierre Gassendiafter Louis Edouard RioultBorn 1592 01 22 22 January 1592Champtercier ProvenceDied24 October 1655 1655 10 24 aged 63 Paris FranceEducationUniversity of Aix en ProvenceUniversity of Avignon Th D 1614 Era17th century philosophyRegionWestern philosophySchoolAristotelianism Epicureanism Atomism Empiricism Nominalism 1 Materialism 1 Corpuscularianism 2 Theological voluntarism 3 InstitutionsUniversity of Aix en ProvenceCollege RoyalMain interestsPhilosophical logic physics ethicsNotable ideasCalor vitalis vital heat Influences Aristotle Socrates Plato Epicurus Erasmus Michel De Montaigne Rodrigo de Arriaga 4 Influenced Walter Charleton Thomas Hobbes John Locke Gottfried Leibniz Voltaire Jean Jacques Rousseau David Hume Edward Gibbon Edmund Burke Joseph De Maistre Karl Marx Sigmund Freud Charles Darwin Friedrich Nietzsche Bernier He wrote numerous philosophical works and some of the positions he worked out are considered significant finding a way between skepticism and dogmatism Richard Popkin indicates that Gassendi was one of the first thinkers to formulate the modern scientific outlook of moderated skepticism and empiricism He clashed with his contemporary Descartes on the possibility of certain knowledge His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life 1 2 Priesthood 1 3 1640s 1 4 Death and memorial 2 Scientific achievements 3 Writings 3 1 Exercitationes 3 2 Animadversiones 3 3 Syntagma philosophicum 4 Views 5 Early commentary 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External linksBiography EditEarly life Edit Gassendi was born at Champtercier near Digne in France to Antoine Gassend and Francoise Fabry 8 His earliest education was entrusted to his maternal uncle Thomas Fabry the cure of the church of Champtercier 9 A youthful prodigy at a very early age he showed academic potential and attended the college the town high school at Digne where he displayed a particular aptitude for languages and mathematics In 1609 he entered the University of Aix en Provence to study philosophy under Philibert Fesaye O Carm 10 at the College Royal de Bourbon the Faculty of Arts of the University of Aix 11 In 1612 the college of Digne called him to lecture on theology While at Digne he travelled to Senez where he received minor orders from Bishop Jacques Martin In 1614 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Avignon 12 and was elected Theologian in the Cathedral Chapter of Digne On 1 August 1617 he received holy orders from Bishop Jacques Turricella of Marseille 9 In the same year at the age of 24 he accepted the chair of philosophy at the University of Aix en Provence and yielded the chair of theology to his old teacher Fesaye Gassendi seems gradually to have withdrawn from theology He maintained his position as Canon Theologian at Digne however and in September 1619 when Bishop Raphael de Bologne took possession of the diocese of Digne Gassendi participated and made the speech on behalf of the Chapter 13 He lectured principally on the Aristotelian philosophy conforming as far as possible to the traditional methods while he also followed with interest the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler He came into contact with the astronomer Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette 1564 1647 the Grand Vicar of the Archbishopric of Aix 14 Priesthood Edit In 1623 the Society of Jesus took over the University of Aix They filled all positions with Jesuits so Gassendi was required to find another institution 15 He left returning to Digne on 10 February 1623 and then returned to Aix to witness an eclipse of the moon on 14 April and the presence of Mars in Sagittarius on 7 June from which he returned again to Digne 16 He travelled to Grenoble on behalf of the Chapter of Digne for a lawsuit most reluctantly since he was working on his project on Aristotle s paradoxes 17 In 1624 he printed the first part of his Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos A fragment of the second book later appeared in print at The Hague 1659 but Gassendi never composed the remaining five apparently thinking that the Discussiones Peripateticae of Francesco Patrizzi left little scope for him He spent some time with his patron Nicolas Peiresc After 1628 Gassendi travelled in Flanders and in Holland where he encountered Isaac Beeckman and Francois Luillier 17 18 He returned to France in 1631 In 1634 the Cathedral Chapter of Digne had become disgusted at the wasteful behavior of Provost Blaise Ausset and they voted to replace him They obtained an arret of the Parliament of Aix dated 19 December 1634 which consented to his deposition and to the election of Gassendi as provost of the Cathedral Chapter Gassendi was formally installed on 24 December 1634 He held the Provostship until his death in 1655 19 During this time he wrote some works at the insistence of Marin Mersenne They included his examination of the mystical philosophy of Robert Fludd 20 an essay on parhelia 21 and some observations on the transit of Mercury 1640s Edit Gassendi then spent some years travelling through Provence with the duke of Angouleme governor of the region During this period he wrote only the one literary work his Life of Peiresc whose death in 1637 seemed to afflict him deeply 22 it received frequent reprintings and an English translation He returned to Paris in 1641 where he met Thomas Hobbes 23 He gave some informal philosophy classes gaining pupils or disciples according to the biographer Grimarest these included Moliere Cyrano de Bergerac whose participation in classes is disputed 24 Jean Hesnault and Claude Emmanuel Chapelle son of Lullier 25 26 In 1640 Mersenne engaged him in controversy with Rene Descartes His objections to the fundamental propositions of Descartes appeared in print in 1641 they appear as the Fifth Set of Objections in the works of Descartes 27 and as a separate edition entitled Disquisitio Metaphysica 28 with rejoinders 29 Though Descartes is often credited with the discovery of the mind body problem Gassendi reacting to Descartes mind body dualism was the first to state it 30 Gassendi s tendency towards the empirical school of speculation appears more pronounced here than in any of his other writings Jean Baptiste Morin attacked his De motu impresso a motore translato 1642 22 In 1643 Mersenne also tried to garner support from the German Socinian and advocate of religious tolerance Marcin Ruar Ruar replied at length that he had already read Gassendi but was in favour of leaving science to science not to the church 31 In 1645 he accepted the chair of mathematics in the College Royal in Paris and lectured for several years with great success In addition to controversial writings on physical questions there appeared during this period the first of the works for which historians of philosophy remember him In 1647 he published the well received treatise De vita moribus et doctrina Epicuri libri octo Two years later appeared his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laertius 32 In the same year he had published the more important commentary Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri 33 In 1648 ill health compelled him to give up his lectures at the College Royal Around this time he became reconciled to Descartes after years of coldness through the good offices of Cesar d Estrees 34 Death and memorial Edit He travelled in the south of France in the company of his protege aide and secretary Francois Bernier another pupil from Paris He spent nearly two years at Toulon where the climate suited him In 1653 he returned to Paris and resumed his literary work living in the house of Montmor publishing in that year lives of Copernicus and of Tycho Brahe The disease from which he suffered a lung complaint had however established a firm hold on him His strength gradually failed and he died at Paris in 1655 A bronze statue of him by Joseph Ramus was erected by subscription at Digne in 1852 A large crater on the moon is named after him 35 Scientific achievements EditAs part of his promotion of empirical methods and his anti Aristotelian and anti Cartesian views he was responsible for a number of scientific firsts He explained parhelia in 1629 as due to ice crystals In 1631 Gassendi became the first person to observe the transit of a planet across the Sun viewing the transit of Mercury that Kepler had predicted In December of the same year he watched for the transit of Venus but this event occurred when it was night time in Paris Use of camera obscura to gauge the apparent diameter of the moon Dropping stone from mast of ship in De motu conserves horizontal momentum removing an objection to the rotation of the Earth Measurement of speed of sound to about 25 accuracy showing that it is invariant of pitch Satisfactory interpretation of Pascal s Puy de Dome experiment with a barometer in the late 1640s this suggested a created vacuum is possible He asserted and defended in Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri 1649 see Philosophical Writings below the notion that matter is made of atoms following Epicurus In addition to this he did work on determining longitude via eclipses of the Moon and on improving the Rudolphine Tables He addressed the issue of free fall in De motu 1642 and De proportione qua gravia decidentia accelerantur 1646 36 Writings Edit Romanum calendarium Edward Gibbon styled him Le meilleur philosophe des litterateurs et le meilleur litterateur des philosophes The greatest philosopher among literary men and the greatest literary man among philosophers Henri Louis Habert de Montmor published Gassendi s collected works most importantly the Syntagma philosophicum Opera i and ii in 1658 6 vols Lyons Nicolaus Averanius published another edition also in 6 folio volumes in 1727 The first two comprise entirely his Syntagma philosophicum the third contains his critical writings on Epicurus Aristotle Descartes Robert Fludd and Herbert of Cherbury with some occasional pieces on certain problems of physics the fourth his Institutio astronomica and his Commentarii de rebus celestibus the fifth his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laertius the biographies of Epicurus Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc Tycho Brahe Nicolaus Copernicus Georg von Peuerbach and Regiomontanus with some tracts on the value of ancient money on the Roman calendar and on the theory of music with an appended large and prolix piece entitled Notitia ecclesiae Diniensis the sixth volume contains his correspondence The Lives especially those of Copernicus Tycho and Peiresc received much praise Exercitationes Edit The Exercitationes excited much attention though they contain little or nothing beyond what others had already advanced against Aristotle The first book expounds clearly and with much vigour the evil effects of the blind acceptance of the Aristotelian dicta on physical and philosophical study but as occurs with so many of the anti Aristotelian works of this period the objections show the usual ignorance of Aristotle s own writings citation needed The second book which contains the review of Aristotle s dialectic or logic throughout reflects Ramism in tone and method One of the objections to Descartes became famous through Descartes s statement of it in the appendix of objections in the Meditations Animadversiones Edit His book Animadversiones published in 1649 contains a translation of Diogenes Laertius Book X on Epicurus and appeared with a commentary in the form of the Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri 36 His labors on Epicurus have historical importance but he has been criticized for holding doctrines arguably irreconcilable with his strong expressions of empiricism In the book he maintains his maxim that there is nothing in the intellect which has not been in the senses nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu but he contends that the imaginative faculty phantasia is the counterpart of sense because it involves material images and therefore is intrinsically material and that it is essentially the same both in men and brutes However he also admits that the classic qualifier of humanity intellect which he affirms as immaterial and immortal comes to an understanding of notions and truths that no effort of sensation or imagination could have attained Op ii 383 He illustrates the capacity to form general notions the conception of universality ib 384 which he says brutes never are able to partake in though they utilize phantasia as truly as men the notion of God whom he says we may imagine as corporeal but understand as incorporeal and lastly the reflex by which the mind makes the phenomena and operations within it the objects of its attention The English Epicurean Walter Charleton produced an English free adaptation of this book Physiologia Epicuro Gassendo Charletonia in 1654 36 Syntagma philosophicum Edit The Syntagma philosophicum sub divides according to the usual fashion of the Epicureans into logic which with Gassendi as with Epicurus is truly canonic physics and ethics The logic contains a sketch of the history of the science De origine et varietate logicae and is divided into theory of right apprehension bene imaginari theory of right judgment bene proponere theory of right inference bene colligere theory of right method bene ordinare The first part contains the specially empirical positions which Gassendi afterwards neglects or leaves out of account The senses the sole source of knowledge supposedly yield us immediate cognition of individual things phantasy which Gassendi takes as material in nature reproduces these ideas understanding compares these ideas each particular and frames general ideas Nevertheless he admits that the senses yield knowledge not of things but of qualities only and that we arrive at the idea of thing or substance by inductive reasoning He holds that the true method of research is the analytic rising from lower to higher notions yet he sees and admits that inductive reasoning as conceived by Francis Bacon rests on a general proposition not itself proved by induction The whole doctrine of judgment syllogism and method mixes Aristotelian and Ramist notions In the second part of the Syntagma the physics appears the most glaring contradiction between Gassendi s fundamental principles While approving of the Epicurean physics he rejects the Epicurean negation of God and particular providence He states the various proofs for the existence of an immaterial infinite supreme Being asserts that this Being is the author of the visible universe and strongly defends the doctrine of the foreknowledge and particular providence of God At the same time he holds in opposition to Epicureanism the doctrine of an immaterial rational soul endowed with immortality and capable of free determination Friedrich Albert Lange 37 claimed that all this portion of Gassendi s system contains nothing of his own opinions but is introduced solely from motives of self defence The positive exposition of atomism has much that is attractive but the hypothesis of the calor vitalis vital heat a species of anima mundi world soul which he introduces as a physical explanation of physical phenomena does not seem to throw much light on the special problems which he invokes it to solve Nor is his theory of the weight essential to atoms as being due to an inner force impelling them to motion in any way reconcilable with his general doctrine of mechanical causes In the third part the ethics over and above the discussion on freedom which on the whole is indefinite there is little beyond a milder statement of the Epicurean moral code The final end of life is happiness and happiness is harmony of soul and body tranquillitas animi et indolentia corporis Probably Gassendi thinks perfect happiness is not attainable in this life but it may be in the life to come Views EditAccording to Gabriel Daniel Gassendi was a little Pyrrhonian in matters of science but that was no bad thing 38 He wrote against the magical animism of Robert Fludd and judicial astrology 39 40 He became dissatisfied with the Peripatetic system the orthodox approach to natural philosophy based on the writings of Aristotle Gassendi shared an empirical tendency of the age He contributed to the objections against Aristotelian philosophy but waited to publish his own thoughts There remains some controversy as to the extent to which Gassendi subscribed to the so called libertinage erudit the learned free thinking that characterised the Tetrade the Parisian circle to which he belonged along with Gabriel Naude and two others Elie Diodati and Francois de La Mothe Le Vayer Gassendi at least belonged to the fideist wing of the sceptics arguing that the absence of certain knowledge implied the room for faith 41 In his dispute with Descartes he did apparently hold that the evidence of the senses remains the only convincing evidence yet he maintains as is natural from his mathematical training that the evidence of reason is absolutely satisfactory Early commentary EditSamuel Sorbiere a disciple 42 recounts Gassendi s life in the first collected edition of the works by Joseph Bougerel Vie de Gassendi 1737 2nd ed 1770 as does Jean Philibert Damiron Memoire sur Gassendi 1839 An abridgment of his philosophy was given by his friend the celebrated traveller Francois Bernier Abrege de la philosophie de Gassendi 8 vols 1678 2nd ed 7 vols 1684 See also EditOntological pluralism List of Roman Catholic scientist clericsNotes Edit a b c Fisher Saul August 28 2014 Zalta Edward N ed The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Vere Claiborne Chappell ed The Cambridge Companion to Locke Cambridge University Press 1994 p 56 Peter Harrison The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science Cambridge University Press p 220 There has been considerable discussion in the secondary literature about the impact of Boyle s theological voluntatism on his approach to natural philosophy Caruso 1981 p 443 Leon Warnant 1987 Dictionnaire de la prononciation francaise dans sa norme actuelle in French 3rd ed Gembloux J Duculot S A ISBN 978 2 8011 0581 8 Pierre Gassendi Synthese Historical Library Vol 30 1987 doi 10 1007 978 94 009 3793 2 ISBN 978 94 010 8187 0 via link springer com Brundell B Pierre Gassendi from Aristotelianism to a New Natural Philosophy D Reidel Publishing 1987 PDF Hockey Thomas 2009 The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers Springer Publishing ISBN 978 0 387 31022 0 Retrieved August 22 2012 a b Fisquet p 249 Bougerel 1737 p 6 Ferdinand Belin 1896 Histoire de l ancienne universite de Provence ou Histoire de la fameuse universite d Aix periode 1409 1679 in French Paris A Picard et fils pp 183 340 341 Pierre Gassendi Biography Maths History Fisquet p 250 Bougerel 1737 pp 8 9 Dictionary of Scientific Biography Gassendi Gassend Pierre retrieved 2017 08 02 J J O Connor and E F Robertson Pierre Gassendi retrieved 2017 08 02 self published source Bougerel p 15 a b Galileo Project page Bougerel p 15 The Archimedes Project Gassendi Pierre actually Pierre Gassend Archived 2012 02 20 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 2017 08 02 Fisquet pp 248 252 256 Epistolica Exercitatio in qua precipua principia philosophiae Roberti Fluddi deteguntur 1631 Epistola de parheliis a b Gassendi Pierre Gassendi Biography Information Links Dr Robert A Hatch Patricia Springborg editor The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes s Leviathan 2007 p 422 www paulvates com www paulvates com LoveToKnow Advice you can trust Archived from the original on 2009 01 25 Retrieved 2009 01 07 Encyclopedie de l Agora Nolan Lawrence August 28 2021 Zalta Edward N ed The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Gassendi Pierre 1644 Disquisito metaphysica seu dubitationes et instantiae adversus Renati Cartesii metaphysicam et responsa in Latin Vrin Descartes Rene Ariew Roger Cress Donald A 2006 03 10 Meditations Objections and Replies Hackett Publishing pp ix ISBN 978 1 60384 350 8 Cottinghm Stoothof Murdoch Vol II CUP 1984 pp 234 237 Murr Sylvia ed 1997 in French Gassendi et l Europe Paris Vrin ISBN 978 2 7116 1306 9 De vita moribus et placitis Epicuri seu Animadversiones in X librum Diog Laer Lyons 1649 last edition 1675 Lyons 1649 Amsterdam 1684 Desmond M Clarke Descartes A Biography 2006 p 377 https skyandtelescope org wp content uploads MoonMap pdf bare URL PDF a b c Fisher Saul 2009 Pierre Gassendi Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Geschichte des Materialismus 3rd ed i 233 Richard Popkin The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza 1979 p 104 Keith Thomas Religion and the Decline of Magic 1973 p 418 and p 770 Ueberweg Archived from the original on 2009 02 03 Retrieved 2009 01 06 Amesbury Richard Fideism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 26 September 2012 http www webspawner com users alanbailey scept7z htmlReferences EditSeventeenth to nineteenth century commentaryBougerel Joseph 1737 Vie de Pierre Gassendi in French Paris Imprimerie de Jacques Vincent Johann Gottlieb Buhle Geschichte der neuern Philosophie 1802 iii 1 87 222 Jean Philibert Damiron Memoires pour servir a l histoire de la philosophie au XVIIe siecle 1864 Feuerbach Ludwig 1833 Geschichte der neuern Philosophie von Bacon von Verulam bis Benedict Spinoza Ansbach C Brugel pp 127 150 Retrieved 2012 02 05 Fisquet Honore 1864 La France pontificale Metropole d Aix Digne 1re partie Digne et Riez Paris Etienne Repos 1864 C Guttler Gassend oder Gassendi in Archiv fur Geschichte d Philos x 1897 pp 238 242 F X Kiefl P Gassendis Erkenninistheorie and seine Stellung zum Materialismus 1893 and Gassendi s Skepticismus in Philos Jahrb vi 1893 Heinrich Ritter Geschichte der Philosophie 1851 X 543 571 Pierre Felix Thomas La Philosophie de Gassendi Paris 1889 Twentieth and twenty first century commentaryCaruso Esther 1981 Sul nominalismo di Gassendi Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 36 4 438 450 JSTOR 44022083 Alberti Antonina 1988 Sensazione e realta Epicuro e Gassendi Florence Leo Olschki ISBN 88 222 3608 4 Olivier Bloch 1971 La philosophie de Gassendi Nominalisme materialisme et metaphysique La Haye Martinus Nijhoff ISBN 90 247 5035 0 George Sidney Brett 1908 Philosophy of Gassendi London Macmillan Barry Brundell 1987 Pierre Gassendi From Aristotelianism to a New Natural Philosophy Dordrecht Springer Franz Daxecker 2004 The Physicist and Astronomer Christoph Scheiner Biography Letters Works Innsbruck Publikations of Innsbruck University 246 ISBN 3 901249 69 9 Saul Fisher 2005 Pierre Gassendi s Philosophy and Science Leiden Boston Brill ISBN 978 90 04 11996 3 Lynn Sumida Joy 1987 Gassendi the Atomist Advocate of History in an Age of Science Cambridge UK New York Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 52239 0 Antonia Lolordo 2007 Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy Cambridge UK New York Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 86613 2 Marco Messeri 1985 Causa e spiegazione La fisica di Pierre Gassendi Milan Franco Angeli ISBN 88 204 4045 8 Margaret J Osler 1994 Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World Cambridge UK New York Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 46104 9 Rolf W Puster 1991 Britische Gassendi Rezeption am Beispiel John Lockes Frommann Holzboog ISBN 3 7728 1362 3 Lisa T Sarasohn 1996 Gassendi s Ethics Freedom in a Mechanistic Universe Ithaca NY Cornell University Press Reiner Tack 1974 Untersuchungen zum Philosophie und Wissenschaftsbegriff bei Pierre Gassendi 1592 1655 Meisenheim am Glan Hain ISBN 3 445 01103 6 Pierre Gassendi 1654 The Life of Copernicus 1473 1543 The Man Who Did Not Change the World with notes by Oliver Thill XulonPress 2002 ISBN 1 59160 193 2 The Life of Copernicus 1473 1543 Tertiary sources This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Adamson Robert 1911 Gassendi Pierre Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 11 11th ed pp 503 504 External links Edit Media related to Pierre Gassendi at Wikimedia Commons Works by or about Pierre Gassendi at Wikisource Quotations related to Pierre Gassendi at Wikiquote Works by Pierre Gassendi at Open Library Fisher Saul Pierre Gassendi In Zalta Edward N ed Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy De proportione qua gravia decidentia accelerantur 1646 Concerning Happiness MathPages Mercurius in Sole Visus Timeline Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pierre Gassendi amp oldid 1151971975, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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