Descartes, Galileo, Hobbes: Philosophy and Science, Politics and Religion during the Scientific Revolution

FAIN: FS-50216-09

Princeton University (Princeton, NJ 08540-5228)
Daniel Elliot Garber (Project Director: March 2009 to March 2011)

Funding details:
Original grant (2009) $179,498.00
Supplement (2010) $3,300.00

A four-week college and university teacher seminar for sixteen participants on the relation between philosophy, science, politics, and religion as the intellectual context for three major thinkers and their works.

The four week summer seminar will bring together fifteen college-level instructors with the aim of deepening their knowledge of three central figures in early seventeenth century thought, broadly conceived to include philosophy, science and mathematics, political and religious thought. In our seminar we propose to tackle a group of interrelated texts, figures and issues. Descartes and Hobbes knew one another, and both knew Galileo's work very well, and were keenly aware of his conflict with the Church. Studying these figures together brings out interesting themes in the history of science, philosophy, politics, and the relations of these to religion. Furthermore, each of these figures is central to the curricula in philosophy, political science, and history. Our hope is to bring together scholars and teachers from these different areas to learn from one another and thereby to enrich their teaching and scholarship.