Mathematicians and their Gods: Interactions between mathematics and religious beliefs by McCartney Mark Lawrence Snezana

Author:McCartney, Mark, Lawrence, Snezana
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-05-26T14:18:00+00:00

The enlightenment of Agnesi

The Propositiones philosophicae (1738) offer a good insight into the kind of natural philosophy in which Agnesi was trained, and some indications of her own distinctive take on important philosophical issues. These propositions are a fascinating medley of scholastic, Cartesian, and Newtonian ideas, which was indeed a trait of much early eighteenth-century scientific culture in continental Europe. The organization of the materials seems to follow a rather traditional structure: logic, ontology, pneumatology, general and particular physics – not unlike a course of philosophy in a contemporary Jesuit college. Even the main textbook she used for her studies – Edmond Pourchot’s Institutiones philosophicae (1695) – would have been familiar to college students. If one goes beyond the formal structure of her training, however, and looks at her manuscript notes as well, the differences begin to emerge. For example, while college students would focus on logic, metaphysics, and general physics, Agnesi moved quickly through them, working more extensively on particular physics and mathematics instead. Logic and metaphysics are simply the occasion to reflect on methodological and epistemological issues that she saw as preliminary to her scientific work. This was a complete reversal of priorities with respect to traditional college education. In other words, the materials used are largely the same, but they are used differently. The Propositiones also give us a good sense of the modern authors that Agnesi managed to integrate in her curriculum. The epistemological framework is Cartesian, as is the emphasis on evidence and the discussion of the conditions of truth of an idea. It is, however, a decidedly apologetic Cartesianism, filtered through the lens of a devout sensibility. A belief in the fundamental harmony of faith and reason shapes Agnesi’s understanding of the process of cognition, and makes her turn to authors like Nicholas Malebranche (1638–1715), probably the single most influential author in her studies. Agnesi is not interested in Malebranche’s problematic metaphysics and theology, but rather in his effort to integrate modern science and the Catholic tradition. Thus Agnesi is interested in the doctrine of occasionalism – according to which all events are caused directly by God – and the image of knowledge as the product of the ‘vision in God’. The belief that human reason is an essentially passive faculty, which requires divine illumination in order to ‘perceive’ its objects, will return often in Agnesi’s own notes. The framework of general physics is also Cartesian, although this does not prevent Agnesi from enthusiastically embracing many Newtonian ‘doctrines’, from mechanics to the origin of celestial bodies, to the theory of colours. There seems to be an aesthetic appreciation of Newtonian natural philosophy, which she defines a ‘most beautiful and simple theory’.17 Already at this early stage it is possible to see that Agnesi is especially fond of mathematics, as a source of certainty and of unparalleled intellectual pleasure.

After the renegotiation of her lifestyle at the end of 1739, Agnesi gave up the study of natural philosophy to concentrate on the study of mathematics and the making of her main book.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.