Marinucci, Ludovica
(2021)
Christiaan Huygens’s Natural Theology in His Cosmotheoros and Other Late Writings.
HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science.
Abstract
Christiaan Huygens’ late writings, ranging from 1686 to 1695, bear witness to his philosophical and theological reflections. In his Cosmotheoros, which was intended for publication, and other late writings which can be regarded as its preparatory drafts, Huygens deals with issues central to seventeenth-century philosophical debates: God’s power, divine and human intelligence, probabilistic epistemology, natural theology, and the plurality of worlds. This paper explains how Huygens’ reflections on animals and their souls, rational or not, play a key role in his epistemological reflections on natural theology. The issue of animal generation, as well as of animal souls, is crucial to identifying elements of continuity between the scientific topics of Huygens’ works, and may be considered as the point of intersection between his understanding of mechanism and of the teleology of nature. This neglected perspective on Huygens’ philosophical-natural animism reveals key elements of his model of rationality and of his attitude towards religion, demonstrating his involvement in the debate over animism, in which he seems to have been strongly influenced by English Protestant empiricism.
| Item Type: |
Published Article or Volume
|
| Creators: |
|
| Keywords: |
Christiaan Huygens, Natural theology, Mechanistic philosophy, Teleology of nature, Philosophical animism |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Ludovica Marinucci
|
| Date Deposited: |
13 Mar 2022 05:49 |
| Last Modified: |
13 Mar 2022 05:49 |
| Item ID: |
20324 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science |
| Official URL: |
https://doi.org/10.1086/715878 |
| DOI or Unique Handle: |
10.1086/715878 |
| Date: |
2021 |
| URI: |
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20324 |
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