1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910822877403321

Autore

Jones Matthew L (Matthew Laurence), <1972->

Titolo

The good life in the scientific revolution : Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the cultivation of virtue / / Matthew L. Jones

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2006

ISBN

1-281-95723-2

0-226-40956-2

9786611957230

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (404 p.)

Classificazione

CF 1250

Disciplina

509.032

Soggetti

Science - History - 17th century

Mathematics - Philosophy - History - 17th century

Science - Moral and ethical aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-361) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- A Note on Conventions -- Introduction -- PART I. Descartes -- PA RT II. Pascal -- PA RT III. Leibniz -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Amid the unrest, dislocation, and uncertainty of seventeenth-century Europe, readers seeking consolation and assurance turned to philosophical and scientific books that offered ways of conquering fears and training the mind-guidance for living a good life. The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their new work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life. Their scientific and philosophical innovations stemmed in part from their understanding of mathematics and science as cognitive and spiritual exercises that could create a truer mental and spiritual nobility. In portraying the rich contexts surrounding Descartes' geometry, Pascal's arithmetical triangle, and Leibniz's calculus, Matthew L. Jones argues that this drive for moral therapeutics guided important developments of early modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution.