Pierre Gassendi's Empiricism and its Impact on 17th-Century Europe – GASSENDI

This project seeks to reevaluate the importance of Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) in the constitution of various forms of 17th-century empiricisms in Europe. Gassendi was certainly one of the most important founding fathers of the new science and philosophy of the 17th century. But unfortunately, in comparison to Descartes or Newton, Gassendi is nowadays often viewed as a second-rate author, and a bit of an antiquarian, because of his interest in reconstructing Epicurean philosophy. Rejecting such a retrospective view, this project intends to reassess the role of Gassendi’s philosophy and epistemology in the articulation of early modern philosophy and science. For that purpose, the project will concentrate on Gassendi’s scientific practices and their relation to his commitment to empiricism, as well as on their impact on two privileged areas of 17th-century Europe. What is at stake is first to show that Gassendi’s researches in optics, astronomy, anatomy, and physics were crucial for the constitution of his empiricism, and then to unravel Gassendi’s impact on the development of empiricist approaches to nature in two areas that were especially receptive to it, namely Great Britain and the Low Countries.

The first part of this project aims to show the role played by Gassendi’s research in various scientific areas (optics, astronomy, physics, mechanics) in the development of his empiricist theory of knowledge. For Gassendi, experience was not only the source of general knowledge through induction, but also played a crucial role in physically elucidating specific natural phenomena. What is specific to Gassendi’s approach to experience and what makes it particularly relevant from a historical point of view is that it both promotes a theory of knowledge based on the senses and involves a study of optics and observational practices that are crucial for the elaboration of explanations of natural phenomena. What deserves specific inquiry is thus the articulation between Gassendi’s theory of knowledge, his theory of vision, and his experimental practice. In the wake of Kepler’s renovation of optics, Gassendi promoted a new conception of vision based on the articulation of a physics of light, a physiology of vision, and a psychology of vision. The project will explore these three dimensions, in particular through his (partly unpublished) correspondence with Boulliau, Peiresc and Hortensius. It will also show how Gassendi’s empiricism was developed as a polemical tool against Descartes’ philosophy, and influenced his conception of mathematics.

In a second part, this project will focus on the dissemination and influence of Gassendi’s thought in two areas which were especially receptive to empiricism, namely the Low Countries and Great Britain. In the Low Countries, Gassendi’s empiricist philosophy served as a tool against Cartesian metaphysics. But Gassendi also had an important network of Dutch correspondents with whom he exchanged observational astronomical reports. This dimension of Gassendi’s influence played a crucial role in the establishment of the new science, and especially in the defense of Copernicanism. In Great Britain, Gassendi’s works were widely disseminated and translated into English, in particular through Charleton’s Physiologia. We will seek to trace the paths of reception of Gassendi’s empiricism in England, paying special attention to their scientific context. Gassendi indeed had a crucial impact on major British figures such as Locke, Newton, Boyle, and Thomas Willis. In so doing, we intend to show that the genesis of various forms of empiricisms in the 17th century cannot be reduced to the influence of Francis Bacon and did not develop in isolation from continental influences. Gassendi indeed played a major role in this process.