Science and the Shaping of Modernity: Essays in Honor of Stephen Gaukroger 62

This book collects a variety of short essays on Stephen Gaukroger’s thought, by leading scholars, both senior and junior. Stephen Gaukroger (1950–2023) was one of the preeminent specialists of early modern science and philosophy, particularly their interrelations including under the heading ‘natural philosophy’, on the international scene, since the 1980s, starting with his prominent Cartesian scholarship (and biography) and moving towards the formidable 4-volume series on science and the shaping of modernity (from Emergence of a Scientific Culture to Civilization and the Culture of Science), dealing not just with early modernity but with the Enlightenment, German Romanticism and 20th-century society. This volume covers the thought of this highly-recognized scholar and engages with his works covering early modern philosophy, enlightenment, and contemporary periods, making it a must-read for any philosopher and historian of science. Introduction References Contents About the Editors Chapter 1: Descartes after Gaukroger References Chapter 2: Abiding, Fruitful (and Never ‘Vehement’): Forty Years of Historiographical Dialogue with Steve Gaukroger 2.1 Prologue 2.2 Pioneering in Cambridge 1976–79, Buchdahl, Bachelard, (and Me): From Galileo to Descartes 2.3 At the Turn of the Millennium: Peak Cartesian Studies: Natural Philosophy, Matter Theory, Vortices, Hydraulic Mechanics and Laws of Motion 2.4 Easy Concurrence and Subtle Differences 1999–2023 2.5 Vale References Chapter 3: In Praise of an Independent Thinker: Stephen Gaukroger’s Methods, Concepts, and Command of Languages References Chapter 4: Remarks on Philosophy and Friendship References Chapter 5: Optimism References Chapter 6: Gaukroger on the Autonomy of Phenomenal Explanation 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Concept of Phenomenal Explanation 6.3 An Illustration of Phenomenal Explanation: Boyle on the Spring of the Air 6.4 Historiographical Placement 6.5 The Deployment of the Thesis in Gaukroger’s Writings 6.6 Assessment 6.7 Conclusion References Chapter 7: Religion and the Social Legitimation of Science References Chapter 8: Science and Scepticism: Navigating Knowledge, Belief, and Faith 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Carving Out Domains of Knowledge 8.3 Sceptical Arguments 8.4 Intellectual Humility 8.5 Conclusion References Chapter 9: Some Reflections on Gaukroger’s Descartes References Chapter 10: In the Spirit of Bacon: Descartes on Communicating Knowledge and Ignorance in the Discourse on the Method References Primary Sources Secondary Sources Chapter 11: Gaukroger’s Descartes’ System of Natural Philosophy: A Few Dilemmas of Descartes’s Physics 11.1 First Dilemma: What Is Descartes’s Physics? 11.2 Second Dilemma: Do Metaphysical Principles Work in Physics? 11.3 Third Dilemma: Is It a Physics of Particular Bodies? 11.4 Fourth Dilemma: The Treatise on Man References Chapter 12: Peering Horizontally Through the Microscope: Stephen Gaukroger Explains the Middling World 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Vertical and Horizontal Explanations 12.3 The Middling World 12.4 Conclusion: Neither Up nor Down References Chapter 13: Nero’s Ingratitude: Spinoza and the Naturalisation of Sin References Chapter 14: The Great Spinoza Controversy of the 1780s: The Role of Frans Hemsterhuis (1721–1790) Bibliography Chapter 15: The Philosophical Personae of Joseph Weber (1753–1831): Catholic Philosopher-Priest at the University of Dillingen 15.1 Introduction 15.1.1 The Case of Joseph Weber 15.1.2 From Jesuit Scholasticism to Introspective Philosophy 15.1.3 Weber the Kantian 15.1.4 Kant and Schelling 15.1.5 Physics References Chapter 16: The History of the Humanities and the History of Science in the Early Natural History of the Kangaroo 16.1 Introduction 16.2 A Taxonomic Puzzle 16.3 Camper on Natural History and the Arts References Chapter 17: The Life-Made World of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Works Cited Primary Sources Archival Print Secondary Sources Chapter 18: Romanticism and Empiricism: Or Romantic Empiricism 18.1 The Failures of Philosophy 18.2 Romantic Empiricism 18.3 Conclusion: Beyond Failures References Chapter 19: Georg Forster and Therese Huber’s Adventures on a Journey to New Holland References Chapter 20: Sense, Sensibility, Sensitivity, or, Why Was the Eighteenth Century More Sentimental Than the Seventeenth Century? References Chapter 21: Physiologizing the Resurrection: Bonnet as Reader of Malebranche 21.1 Montesquieu, the Oyster and the Huron 21.2 The Malebranchist Physiologisation of the Propagation of Original Sin 21.3 The Universal ‘Physics of Resurrection’ in Palingenesis: An Extension-Radicalisation of Preformationism 21.4 The Newtons and Leibnizes of Apes and Elephants, the Perraults and Vaubans of Beavers 21.5 Conclusion References Chapter 22: Mandeville on Medical Men References Chapter 23: The Genre of Natural History of Man Through Stephen Gaukroger’s Lens: Intellectual Sentiments Within Stadial History: Giambattista Vico, the Encyclopédie, Adam Smith 23.1 Introduction 23.2 Curiosity in the Encyclopédie’s Accounts of Stadial History: Between Utility and Pleasure 23.3 Giambatistta Vico: The Hybrid Status of Curiosity in Jurisprudence and History 23.4 Giambattista Vico and Adam Smith on Curiosity Through Successive Historical Stages 23.5 Giambattista Vico on Curiosity and the Authority of Myths 23.6 Conclusion References Chapter 24: The Limits of the Mechanical and the Primacy of the Phenomenal: The Case of William Cullen and David Hume 24.1 Introduction 24.2 The Primacy of the Phenomenal 24.3 Horizontal Explanatory Strategies in Cullen and Hume 24.4 Conclusion References Chapter 25: Where’s Lucian? Failure and Historical Compromise in the History of Philosophy 25.1 Historicity and Genealogy 25.2 Lucian and Novelty 25.3 Propositional Certainty and Satire 25.4 The Entailed Liar References Chapter 26: Stephen Gaukroger on Philosophical Failure References Chapter 27: What Kind of Philosophy Might Survive the History of Its Failures? Gadamerian Reflections on Stephen Gaukroger’s The Failures of Philosophy 27.1 Philosophy at Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s 27.2 Can Failures Within the History of Philosophy Be Redeemed? 27.3 Plato: Another Look 27.4 What, Exactly, Is the History of Philosophy About? References Chapter 28: On the New Nature and the Impact of Synthetic Philosophy on Cosmogenic Speculation 28.1 Introduction 28.2 Huxley as Synthetic Philosopher 28.3 Peirce 28.4 Coda References Chapter 29: A Naturalist Philosopher References Chapter 30: Stephen Gaukroger and the Neutrality of Historical Epistemology References Chapter 31: Geopraxis and Historical Materialism: For a Humanistic Environmentalism 31.1 Post-epistemology 31.2 Rosa Luxemburg’s Empathic Materialism 31.3 From Classical to Ecological Materialism 31.4 The Gramscian Moment: Toward Praxeological Materialism 31.5 After the End References Chapter 32: The Mentor and Educator in the Persona of the Scholar References Chapter 33: Intellectual History, Philosophy, Literature: What I Learned from Stephen Gaukroger References Chapter 34: Orientation in Space, Thought and Life: Continuing Some Recent Conversations with Stephen Chapter 35: List of Publications by Stephen Gaukroger