Izvorni znanstveni članak

The Natural-philosophical Views of Josip Zanchi

Žarko Dadić ; Zavod za povijest i filozofiju znanosti HAZU, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Sažetak

In 1747 Zanchi translated into Latin a treatise by the French Jesuit Noël Regnault in which Regnault, advocating the natural philosophy of Descartes, opposed Voltaire’s book on Newtonian physics. Many views of Regnault can be found in Zanchi’s textbooks on natural philosophy which were published starting from as early as 1748. Zanchi’s textbook Philosophia mentis et sensum, published in 1750 as an enlarged version of his earlier textbooks, shows that he followed the approach to natural philosophy that the Jesuit professor Giovan Battista Tolomei had introduced into Collegium Romanum, which placed an emphasis on observation, experiment, and the explanation of new natural philosophical views. Although Zanchi leant towards Descartes, he also distanced himself from him in certain points and did not, for instance, support his concept of vortex. He did not accept certain tenets of Newtonian physics either. He strongly refuted the Newtonian notion of attraction, being of the opinion that it concealed the concept of virtus occulta. Zanchi thought that the concept of natural laws could not be introduced in stead of the first metaphysical causes and held, in contrast to Newton, that such causes should be introduced into natural philosophy. He explained his theory of downward motion using the concept of ether, but it differed to a considerable extent from the theory of vortex of Descartes. This theory of Zanchi was not accepted by his contemporaries. He refuted the Ptolemaic geocentric system as being contrary to physics and astronomy. He considered the system of Tycho Brache to be too complicated, and supported the Copernican system as an assumption, not as a thesis. Zanchi distanced himself considerably from Aristotle in his views and supported many new scientific achievements. Because of his advanced approach to the teaching of natural philosophy, he played an important role at the University of Vienna in the mid-18th century.

Ključne riječi

Hrčak ID:

68556

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/68556

Datum izdavanja:

1.12.2003.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 1.191 *