Editors: Klaas van Berkel (University of Groningen), Albert Clement (University of Utrecht) and Arjan van Dixhoorn (Utrecht University)
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press, 2022
The Dutch Republic around 1600 was a laboratory of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Here conditions were favourable for the development of new ways of knowing nature and the natural philosopher Isaac Beeckman, who was born in Middelburg in 1588, was a seminal figure in this context. He laid the groundwork for the strictly mechanical philosophy that is at the heart of the new science. Descartes and others could build on what they learned, directly or indirectly, from Beeckman.
As previous studies have mainly dealt with the scientific content of Beeckman’s thinking, this volume also explores the wider social, scientific and cultural context of his work. Beeckman was both a craftsman and a scholar and fruitfully combined artisanal ways of knowing with international scholarly traditions. Beeckman’s extensive private notebook offers a unique perspective on the cultures of knowledge that emerged in this crucial period in intellectual history.
Contents
List of illustrations
A Note on Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction – Klaas van Berkel, Albert Clement, and Arjan van Dixhoorn
Isaac Beeckman in the Context of the Scientific Revolution – John A. Schuster
Isaac Beeckman at Gresham College in 1668: An Alternative ‘As if’ Scenario – H. Floris Cohen
Framing Beeckman: Cornelis de Waard as Editor of the Beeckman Papers – Klaas van Berkel
‘Like Water, that Is Forced to Flow Through a Narrow Opening’: Isaac Beeckman’s Early Conceptualization of the Telescope – Tiemen Cocquyt
Optics, Astronomy, and Natural Philosophy: Beeckman, Descartes, Kepler, and the Dutch Connection – Edouard Mehl
Combining Atomism with Galenic Medicine: The Physiological Theory of Isaac Beeckman (1616-1627) – Elisabeth Moreau
Physician, Patient, Experimenter, and Observer: Isaac Beeckman’s Accounts of Illness and Death – Daniel Moerman
Beeckman, Descartes, and the Principle of Conservation of Motion – Samuel Le Gendre
Isaac Beeckman’s Corpuscular Study of Plants – Fabrizio Baldassarri
Networks of Knowledge in Middelburg Around 1600: The Context of Isaac Beeckman as a Young Man – Huib Zuidervaart
Musical Culture in Middelburg in the Times of Isaac Beeckman – Albert Clement
Consten-Culture: Beeckman, the Rhetoricians, and a New Style of Philosophizing – Arjan van Dixhoorn
Harnessing the Elements: Beeckman and Atmospheric Instruments – Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis
‘Communicated only to Good Friends and Philosophers’: Cornelis Drebbel, Isaac Beeckman, and the Circulation of Artisanal Philosophy – Vera Keller
What’s in a Language? Dutch and Latin in Isaac Beeckman’s Journal – Semra Meray
‘Ut patet in figura’: On the Use of Images in Beeckman’s Journal – Klaas van Berkel
Concluding Remarks – Klaas van Berkel, Albert Clement, and Arjan van Dixhoorn
Index
On the Authors
Acknowledgements