Jesuit Conceptions of Impetus After Galileo: Honoré Fabri, Paolo Casati, and Francesco Eschinardi

Michael Elazar*, Rivka Feldhay

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The fourteenth-century concept of impetus denotes an impressed force and was used to explain the continuation of the motion of projectiles and the acceleration of falling bodies. This chapter deals with the use of this concept in the period between Galileo’s death (1642) and the publication of Newton’s Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica (1687). Focusing on three major figures among contemporary Jesuit thinkers, the French Honoré Fabri (1608–1688) and the Italians Paolo Casati (1617–1707) and Francesco Eschinardi (1623–1703), this chapter shows how these Jesuits employed the concept of impetus in their own versions of preclassical mechanics.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBoston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages285-323
Number of pages39
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018

Publication series

NameBoston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
Volume270
ISSN (Print)0068-0346
ISSN (Electronic)2214-7942

Keywords

  • Aristotle’s physics
  • Francesco Eschinardi
  • Galilean science
  • Honoré Fabri
  • Impetus
  • Jesuit science
  • Paolo Casati

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