Pierre%20Gassendi%20and%20the%20Void

1
Pierre Gassendi and the Void

• ISIH Conference
• Ann T. Orlando
• Weston Jesuit School of Theology
• 18 April 2007

2
Background on Pierre Gassendi

• Born in Champtercier, France 1592 died 1655 in
  Paris
• One of the most famous physicists of his day
• Some beliefs out of step with other natural
  philosophers

3
Gassendis Intellectual Model

• Techniques of empiricists and humanists
• Probabilistic epistemology
• Relationship between physics and mathematics
• Words as best descriptor of nature

4
Toward a Systematic Philosophy

• Epicureanism as a philosophical framework
• Challenge of reconciling Epicureanism with
  seventeenth-century Christianity (Catholicism)
• Atheism, mortality of soul, ethics based on
  pleasure
• Eternity of cosmos, existence of void, atomic
  structure of matter
• Little previous work examined details of
  Gassendis efforts to reconcile Epicureanism and
  Christianity

5
Rehabilitating Epicureanism

• Gassendi had to refute damaging ad hominem
  attacks against Epicurus
• He makes God the author of most objectionable
  Epicurean tenets

6
Gassendi and Christian Classics

• Tried to reconcile physics with Bible, primarily
  through commentaries on Genesis
• If later Christian philosophers could
  rehabilitate Aristotle, Gassendi should be
  allowed to rehabilitate Epicurus
• The early Church Fathers were particularly
  opposed to Aristotle and his philosophy, and they
  displayed extreme animosity against the followers
  of Aristotle. But when some philosophers were
  converted to the faith, they began to set aside
  the more serious errors of Aristotle. What
  remained of Aristotelian philosophy was then
  accommodated to religion so successfully that it
  was no longer suspect and finally became the
  handmaid ministering to religion. Therefore I
  say, just as it was possible in the case of
  Aristotelian philosophy, which is now taught
  publicly, so it is possible with other
  philosophies such as the Stoic and Epicurean.
  All of them have much that is of value and worthy
  of being learned once the errors are eliminated
  and refuted in the same way as the very grave
  errors of Aristotle were refuted. Syntagma
  Philosophicum, Opera Omnia 15.

7
The Problem with a Void

• Epicurus had suggested that all tangible things
  are composed of atoms which move randomly through
  a void
• Aristotle had been strongly opposed to the
  concept of atomic motion and a void in nature
• Another important Aristotelian argument against
  the void was based on his definition of motion
• Aristotelian physics dominated medieval physics
• Condemnations of 1277

8
Gassendis Evidence for a Void

• Empirical Evidence
• Chemical
• Barometric
• Dynamic
• Historical Christian Evidence
• Angels
• Nemesius
• Irenaeus

9
Implications of a VoidSpace and Time

• Not the same things as corporeal entities
• Infinite and Eternal
• Exist Independently of God
• God creates in space and time

10
Gassendis Evidence For the Nature of Space and
Time

• Nemesius
• Augustine
• Scripture
• Gelasius

11
Impact of Gassendis Understanding

• Perceptive, even revolutionary, insight into
  existence of void, space and time
• Important distinction between how space and time
  are measured and what they are
• Influenced Newtons understanding of space

12
Conclusion

• Later physicists confirm Gassendis understanding
  of the void
• Intellectual model that embraced both empiricism
  and humanism in natural philosophy was quickly
  eclipsed
• Gassendis emphasis on words replaced by
  mathematics as the best way to describe nature