Descartes, cartesianism and the tradition about the plurality of worlds
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2447-9020.intelligere.2022.208409Keywords:
Plurality of worlds, Habitability of worlds, René Descartes, Cartesianism, CosmologyAbstract
The themes of plurality and habitability of worlds participate in a millennia-old tradition and discussion, in which topics and experiences of the most diverse natures converge. Originating from ancient Greece, these ideas move through time and come to assume distinct characteristics and uses. In the second half of the seventeenth century, with the cosmology formulated by René Descartes, especially with his theory of vortices, this tradition acquires a new dimension, as these ideas are shared and disseminated by Cartesians, so that an infinite universe sparks imagination and conceptual speculation for other solar systems conceived by artists, writers, and philosophers. Therefore, I propose an exercise in historical hermeneutics, which aims to gather information and traces about this tradition between Descartes thought and subsequent Cartesianism. It is an attempt to reconstruct, at least in part, the transmissions and receptions of the theme as a trajectory of an idea over time.
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