Descartes Boyle And Mechanical Philosphy Essay Research

Descartes, Boyle And Mechanical Philosphy Essay, Research Paper

We can say that the earth has a vegetative soul, and that its flesh is the land, its bones the structure of the rocks…its blood is the pools of the water…its breathing and its pulse are the ebb and flow of the sea.1 `This image of ‘Nature’ was presented by a man who is perceived as having one of the most mechanical minds of his day. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), often described in Biographical Dictionaries as, amongst other things, an ‘engineer’2 and remembered for his dabblings in the realm of flying machines as early as the sixteenth century, was a man who understood the world to be an organic entity. That the earth for da Vinci, ‘has a vegetative soul’,3 highlights the impact mechanical philosophy would have on society, ‘as the sixteenth century organic cosmos was transformed into the seventeenth century mechanistic universe’.4 Da Vinci’s view of the earth as a living organism was one that conformed to Aristotelian philosophy. In the sixteenth century, this Aristotelian world view enjoyed relatively unchallenged dominance. Over a number of centuries, and in part due to the efforts of Thomas Aquinas, it had become integrated with Christianity. Aristotelianism was both scientifically and theologically the accepted philosophical paradigm. The fact that it provided a comprehensive system and that it had widespread religious support made it something of an impenetrable fortress. Rene Descartes (1596-1650), received what would have been deemed in his day a ‘good education’, its foundations firmly embedded in Aristotelian principles. Descartes, however, was not satisfied with what he had been taught and set about formulating an alternative to Aristotelianism. He recognised the need to establish a complete system, identifying the failure of those before him who had not attacked Aristotelianism as a whole: Other early workers, like Paracelsus, Telesio or Campanella also attacked certain parts of Aristotelian philosophy, but none before Descartes had sought to replace it entirely with a comprehensive alternative philosophy.5 Descartes’ mechanical philosophy was to completely revolutionize science, and thus have far-reaching religious implications. The organic world view of Aristotelianism had been constructed in terms of sympathies, correspondences, purposes and the notion of ‘form’ as distinct from ‘matter’. This was to be replaced with a vastly contrasting mechanical view: matter (is) made up of atoms, colors occur by the reflection of light waves of differing lengths, bodies obey the law of inertia, and the sun is the center of our solar system.6 From our own twentieth century perspective these characteristics form part of our understanding of the world, and have long been established in our culture. However, it is essential to study these developments in the context of the seventeenth century, a period in which these concepts were not taken for granted. The introduction of a new philosophical system that was to radically alter man’s understanding of the world, was something that was bound to lead to ‘instability in both the intellectual and the social spheres,’7 and raise important questions about the compatibility of the mechanical philosophy with Christianity. One of the most dangerous implications of Descartes’ mechanical universe is that it raises sensitive questions about God’s relationship to nature: ‘What role could be left for God to play in a universe that ran like clockwork.’8 This ‘clockwork’ image at the centre of Descartes’ mechanical philosophy was one that had to be reconciled with the Christian doctrine of God’s Providence. The ambivalence of the mechanical image means it is one that has been seized upon by Christians, deists and atheists alike. Initially, the concept of a clock work universe implies something that will run by itself, yet paradoxically, many of the leading popularisers of the mechanical philosophy were promoting a system in which they believed God’s Providential role was heightened. Descartes’ new mechanical world was ‘a metaphysical system based on the principle of identity, on the immutable forms and mathematical axioms of Plato’ but perhaps most importantly, a philosophy based on ‘the primacy of God’s intellect, logic and rationality.’9 Far from conceiving God as merely the Being who had put this clockwork universe in motion, or removing him from this mechanical system altogether, Descartes’ philosophy was one founded on the principles that God existed, had created the universe, and most notably, was perpetually sustaining His Creation. This important emphasis on God’s continual involvement with the world He has created, can be seen in regard to Descartes’ views on motion. Motion, Descartes believed, ‘could be transferred among bodies, but its total amount was conserved from instant to instant by God.’10 God can be seen to be regulating and maintaining constancy in the motion of the universe at any given instant. He is not the clockmaker who merely sets a timepiece in motion and then leaves it to run by itself, on the contrary, ‘God’s Creation was not a single act in the past, but a continuing process of preservation.’11 As mechanical philosophy gained support in Descartes’ native France, so did moves towards a centralised Government control. Descartes’ was quick to draw a parallel between the role of Ruler and Creator, ‘God sets up mathematical laws in nature as a king sets up laws in hi