Knowledge and Culture in the Early Dutch Republic : : Isaac Beeckman in Context / / ed. by Arjan Dixhoorn, Klaas Berkel, Albert Clement.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• MitwirkendeR: Baldassarri, Fabrizio,; Berkel, Klaas van,; Clement, Albert,; Cocquyt, Tiemen,; Cohen, H. Floris,; Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan,; Dixhoorn, Arjan van,; Keller, Vera,; Le Gendre, Samuel,; Mehl, Édouard,; Meray, Semra,; Moerman, Dániel,; Moreau, Elisabeth,; Schuster, John A.,; Zuidervaart, Huib,
• HerausgeberIn: Berkel, Klaas,; Clement, Albert,; Dixhoorn, Arjan,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the History of Knowledge ; 2
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (486 p.)

The Dutch Republic around 1600 was a laboratory of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Here conditions were favourable for the development of new ways of knowing nature and the natural philosopher Isaac Beeckman, who was born in Middelburg in 1588, was a seminal figure in this context. He laid the groundwork for the strictly mechanical philosophy that is at the heart of the new science. Descartes and others could build on what they learned, directly or indirectly, from Beeckman. As previous studies have mainly dealt with the scientific content of Beeckman’s thinking, this volume also explores the wider social, scientific and cultural context of his work. Beeckman was both a craftsman and a scholar and fruitfully combined artisanal ways of knowing with international scholarly traditions. Beeckman’s extensive private notebook offers a unique perspective on the cultures of knowledge that emerged in this crucial period in intellectual history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Colour illustrations -- A Note on Abbreviations -- Preface -- 1 Introduction -- Part I. Assessing Beeckman -- 2 Isaac Beeckman in the Context of the Scientific Revolution -- 3 Isaac Beeckman at Gresham College in 1668 -- 4 Framing Beeckman -- Part II. Understanding Beeckman -- 5 ‘Like Water, That Is Forced to Flow through a Narrow Opening’ -- 6 Optics, Astronomy, and Natural Philosophy -- 7 Combining Atomism with Galenic Medicine -- 8 Physician, Patient, Experimenter and Observer -- 9 Beeckman, Descartes, and the Principle of Conservation of Motion -- 10 Beeckman’s Corpuscular Study of Plants -- Part III. Situating Beeckman -- 11 Networks of Knowledge in Middelburg around 1600 -- 12 Musical Culture in Middelburg in the Times of Isaac Beeckman -- 13 Consten-Culture -- 14 Harnessing the Elements -- 15 ‘Communicated Only to Good Friends and Philosophers’ -- 16 What’s in a Language? -- 17 ‘Ut patet in figura’ -- 18 Concluding Remarks -- Acknowledgements -- Index