Talk:Pierre Gassendi

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Someone needs to sort out this page. The French version is even weaker. I don´t know enough, maybe I'll put an appeal in the Descartes section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.179.83.88 (talk • contribs) 18:54, 9 May 2006


 * Large chunks of this are just slightly modified from the 1910 Britannica article, which isn't cited. See http://books.google.com/books?id=kPstAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA503.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.36.67.57 (talk) 23:04, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that such sections as "Philosophical Writings" are a bit biased. Expressions such as "no speculative value" are a little harsh--and a little risky--for an encyclopedia article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.229.213.19 (talk) 11:50, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. Firstly the suggestion of 'ignorance of Aristotle's own writing' is not only negative but what relevance it has is only passing - as it was concerned with the Aristotelean tradition as it was being presented in early modern europe - where the writing that he was reacting against were obligatory and seen as the height of natural philosophy in every institution of learning. Weird desire to decontextualise and defend Descartes here, which again - echoing the previous commenter - shows in phrases like "no speculative value" and "crudest empiricism". His advocacy of empiricism was a completely valid attack on Cartesian philosophy which offered thought experiments as truth (but didn't maintain them for other thought experiments.) and such crude reduction isn't befitting of this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.210.0.183 (talk) 19:00, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Reference to Feuerbach's book
"als" is not correct in the title of Feuerbach's book. The complete title is: Geschichte der neuern Philosophie von Bacon von Verulam bis Benedict Spinoza Ref.: en-wikipedia, de-wikipedia (art. Feuerbach). 64.56.253.40 (talk) 03:30, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Naming
Giving the Northern Lights a name is a naming activity, not a logical or observational one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.180.222.5 (talk) 18:08, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Dropping stone from mast of ship
"Dropping stone from mast of ship (in De motu) conserves horizontal momentum, removing an objection to the rotation of the earth." is listed among the things Pierre Gassendi is supposedly to have done first. However, De Motu was written in 1642 and Galileo claims to have done this experiment in his written reply to Francesco Ingoli in 1624. Therefore, I don't think Pierre Gassendi was first. (Though he may have been the first to *publish* to this effect, since Galileo's written reply was intercepted and not actually delivered.) Qed (talk) 10:46, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Disputed statement
In the article, the following statement is made: "In 1623 the Society of Jesus took over the University of Aix. They filled all positions with Jesuits, so Gassendi was required to find another institution."

In fact, the Jesuits did not take over the University of Aix. First of all, they only took over the undergraduate Collège de Bourbon (the Arts and Humanities component of the University, where philosophy was taught), though it is true that secular clergy were replaced by Jesuits, in accordance with the negotiated contract agreement. Second of all, the date was 1621, not 1623. See:

There is evidence that his resignation from the Faculty was suggested by Peires and Gauthier, not commanded by the Jesuits. See:, pages 14-15.

I might also point out that the reference which supports the offending sentences is a self-published web page, curated by two members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland, and its statements are internally unreferenced. It does not qualify as a legitimate reference. I might further point out that there is a whiff of POV Protestant in the statement, or at least POV anti-Jesuit.

--Vicedomino (talk) 06:06, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

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