The Crisis of Causality Voetius and Descartes on God, Nature and Change

• Main Author: van Ruler, Han
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Leiden ; New York E.J. Brill 1995; Brill; BRILL
• Edition: 1
• Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History
• Subjects: 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699; Aristotelian; c 1500 onwards to present day; Calvinist; cartesian; Causality > History > 17th century; Change > History > 17th century; church history; Cultural and media studies; Cultural studies; Descartes, René, 1596-1650; European history; God > History of doctrines > 17th century; Han van Ruler; History; History and Archaeology; History of science; ideas; intellectual; JBCC9 History of ideas; Mathematics and Science; Mechanism (Philosophy) > History > 17th century; Philosophy; Philosophy and Religion; Philosophy of nature > History > 17th century; scholastic; Science: general issues; Society and culture: general; Society and Social Sciences; theology; Thomistic; Time period qualifiers; Vitalism > History > 17th century; Voet, Gijsbert, 1589-1676
• ISBN: 9004103716; 9789004103719; 9789004247208; 9004247203
• DOI: 10.1163/9789004247208

The Crisis of Causality deals with the reaction of the Dutch Calvinist theologian Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) to the New Philosophy of René Descartes (1596-1650). Voetius not only criticised the Cartesian idea of a mechanical Universe; he also foresaw that shifting conceptions of natural causality would make it impossible for theologians to explain the relationship between God and Creation in philosophical terms. This threatened the status of theology as a scientific discipline. Apart from a detailed analysis of the Scholastic and Cartesian notions of causality, the book offers new perspectives on related subjects, such as seventeenth-century university training and the Cartesian method of science. It will be of great importance to any student of seventeenth-century intellectual history, philosophy, theology and history of science.