A look at the universe in a fundamentally new mechanistic way

DESCARTES, Rene.

Principia philosophiae.

Amsterdam: Louis Elzevir, 1644.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002522

4to (200 x 150 mm). [24], 310, [2] pp., including device on title, several woodcut illustrations (some full page). With the blank leaves at end of preliminaries and at the end. Contemporary full calf, spine with 4 raised bands, decoarated and lettered in gilt, boards ruled in gilt (some worming to spine, boards stained and a bit bowed, extremities with some wear, corners scuffed). Mild browning and occasional very minor spotting of text, faint dampstain to lower blank gutter of preliminary leaves, little worming to lower margin of first endpapers. Provenance: two old library stamps to title-page. A fine, untouched copy. ----

Norman 622; Guibert, p. 118; Tchemerzine II, p. 787; NLM/Krivatsy 9512. - FIRST EDITION OF DESCARTES' SYSTEM OF PHYSICS, in which he developed his theory of vortices. Based in part on his then unpublished work Le monde, which treated the creation and function of the universe in completely mechanistic terms, Descartes' Principia provides a systematic statement of his metaphysics and natural philosophy. The first part, De principiis cognitionis humanae (Of the Principles of Human Knowledge) deals with the nature of motion, rest, force, and action. He defines motion in Book II and distinguishes the difference between translation and 'the force that brings about this translation.' Descartes was careful in the Principia to qualify his mechanistic Copernican views with the idea that all motion is relative.
"His vortical theory allowed him to argue that since the earth is at rest in its surrounding medium it remains unmoved, although it, together with its entire vortex, necessarily circles the sun" (Norman). Descartes' system represents a truly comprehensive look at the universe in a fundamentally new, mechanistic and non-teleological way. His vortex theory was the starting point for all serious work in physical theory in the mid-17th century, including Newton. The fourth and final part of the work contains the first scientific theory of magnetism.

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