Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy: Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World

by Margaret J. Osler

Book Overview

The difference between Pierre Gassendi's (1592-1655) and Ren Descartes' (1596-1650) versions of the mechanical philosophy directly reflected the differences in their theological presuppositions. Gassendi described a world utterly contingent on divine will and expressed his conviction that empirical methods are the only way to acquire knowledge about the natural world. Descartes, on the contrary, described a world in which God had embedded necessary...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052152492X
• ISBN13: 9780521524926
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"