The Mechanization of Nature between 1300 and 1700

This book offers a collection of essays on the history and background of the mechanization of natural philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries. It rewrites the history of mechanism and shows that the philosophical ideas present in Descartes and Newton’s era have a history much longer and more complicated than previously thought. It presents new, original research on three aspects of the mechanical tradition, namely causal powers and laws of nature, conceptions of matter, and the concept of cause, especially final causes. Previous research has indicated that the development of mechanical philosophy in the 17th century is much indebted to the late Aristotelian philosophers of the 16th century. This book, however, takes a further step back in history and by studying the three aspects of the mechanical tradition, shows that philosophical reflection on these topics started in the 14th century and continued up to the time of Newton. The new insights gained by the editors and contributors ensures this book is of great interest to scholars in history of philosophy and historians of science interested in mechanization.