Gassendi, Pierre
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Gassendi, Pierre Delphine Bellis Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires en Sciences Humaines et Sociales (CRISES), Paul Valéry University, Montpellier, France Related Topics
Atomism · Epicureanism · Antiquarianism · Copernicanism · Reception of Galileo’s science · Empiricism · Skepticism
Introduction The French philosopher and physicist Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) was certainly one of the most important founding fathers of the new science and philosophy of the seventeenth century. But unfortunately, in comparison to Descartes ▶ “Descartes” or Newton ▶ “Newton’s Methodology”, Gassendi is nowadays often viewed as a second-rate author, and a bit of an antiquarian, because of his interest in reviving Epicurean philosophy ▶ “Epicureanism”. The underlying division between “forward-looking” and “backward-looking” authors is, however, quite mistaken. In the seventeenth century, antiquarianism and innovation were not antithetical. Actually, Gassendi as well as Descartes were at the time included among the novatores ▶ “Novatores: Rejecting Aristotle and Forging a
New Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century” and were often viewed as the two main competitors in getting the title of a new philosophy released from the stranglehold of Aristotelianism (Osler 1994). In the 1660s, the Royal Society became polarized between the Cartesians and the Gassendists (Jalobeanu 2011). By conjoining the new and the old, Gassendi’s philosophy was a valuable and original early modern alternative to Aristotelianism. Ancient skepticism was first instrumental in this project. Then, Gassendi’s erudite humanism combined with his tireless activity of nature’s observer (especially in astronomy) and his interest in most up-to-date science (in particular Galilean science ▶ “Galileo’s Natural Philosophy”) led him to formulate a new atomist matter theory, as well as an original empiricist epistemology based on the probable. However, by the mid-eighteenth century, the fate of Gassendi’s works and influence progressively diverged from Descartes’: while the latter became, for many, the father of modern philosophy, Gassendi was eventually eclipsed by his rival, to the point that the Syntagma philosophicum, Gassendi’s main work, has never been entirely translated into any modern language.
Life and Works Pierre Gassendi was born on January 22, 1592, in Champtercier, near Digne, in Provence (Jones 1981). He studied philosophy at the University
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 D. Jalobeanu, C. T. Wolfe (eds.), Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_135-1
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of Aix, was ordained priest in 1616, and took the position of canon at the church in Digne. In 1617, he was appointed to the chair in philosophy at the University of Aix where he taught Aristotelian philosophy for 6 years. But since he found this philosophy unsound, he appended to his lectures on Aristotle some critical comments which would form the basis for his later Exercitationes paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos (whose first book was pub
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