Innovation et science scolastique de la nature (v. 1260 – milieu du xive siècle) L’exemple de l’attraction magnétique
- Publication type: Journal article
- Journal: Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes / Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies. varia
2014 – 1, n° 27 - Author: Weill-Parot (Nicolas)
- Abstract: Scientific scholasticism produced many innovations that can often be understood as involving subtle play with models, as can be seen in the topic of magnetic attraction in the commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics. The peripatetician framework could follow through a logic so rigorously as to lead to the re-invention of solutions that had already been found, as would appear to be attested by the formulation by Latin commentators of the Physics of the idea that the air between a magnet and a piece of iron is gradually altered by magnetic force. Additionally, the awareness of a conceptual consistency in the work of an author such as Averroes could at times lead to his being ascribed an argument that actually came from a later tradition ; for example, the maximum weight of a piece of iron that could be moved by a given magnet. Nevertheless, the use of models did not necessarily impose a conceptual straitjacket : innovation and divergences were accorded a certain role as can be seen in the differences between the tradition of English commentators on the Physics and that of Parisian commentators : different issues and disagreements bear witness to the fruitfulness of scholastic thought within which the model most likely functioned more as a stimulus than as a yoke.
- Pages: 59 to 71
- Journal: Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies
- CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques
- EAN: 9782812435164
- ISBN: 978-2-8124-3516-4
- ISSN: 2273-0893
- DOI: 10.15122/isbn.978-2-8124-3516-4.p.0059
- Publisher: Classiques Garnier
- Online publication: 03-02-2015
- Periodicity: Biannual
- Language: French