Philosophical Readings - Online Journal of Philosophy – ISSN 2036-4989

How the world lost its centre: The relation of truths and facts in Middle Ages and early modernity

Rienk Vermij — 2025-06-09

In the Middle Ages, it was commonly accepted that Jerusalem was the centre of the (inhabited) world. This was proven not just from Biblical sentences, but also from an alleged empirical fact: people claimed that in Jerusalem at noon during the summer solstice a vertical pole throws no shadow, the sun being in its zenith. This is not true and even it if were, it would not prove anything. This should have been easy to grasp for an educated medieval person; still, the claim was repeated over and over again. Only at the end of the fifteenth century, it suddenly became subject to investigation and criticism, whereupon it quickly became completely obsolete. The reasons for this shift are not completely clear, but the growing availability of information likely played a role. The episode demon- strates both the importance and the unimportance of em- pirical facts in the Middle Ages. Jerusalem's central position was not just the symbolic representation of a spiritual truth, it was considered empirically true as well; but this fact was not critically evaluated. The “truth” of Jerusalem's centrality dictated what “facts” were credible. The questioning of these presumed facts at the end of the fifteenth century should therefore be regarded as an important turning point in European intellectual history. After all, the realization that truths must be based on inde- pendent facts is a basic precondition of modern science.

The Persistence of Tychonism

Peter Barker — 2025-06-09

Tychonism, if it is considered at all in histories of the Copernican Revolution, is briefly acknowledged as an alternative cosmic scheme, but seldom mentioned as an active tradition extending into the seventeenth century. I will make a case that it lasted into the eighteenth centu- ry. In this paper I will consider astronomers, almanac makers and natural philosophers who adopted and spread Tychonism. I will summarize and supplement the ac- counts of Carolino (2023) and Kallinen (1995) who doc- ument sequences of Tychonists in Lisbon, Portugal and Turku, Finland, respectively. I will then argue that Maria Cunitz (1610-1664) declares herself a Tychonist in her celebrated book Urania Propitia (1650). The same con- siderations emphasize the importance of Christian Longomontanus’ (1562-1647) Astronomia Danica (1622) as a resource for Tychonism. I will conclude by examin- ing a few almanac makers who adopted Tychonism, some of whom used Longomontanus. I offer corrections to ear- lier accounts of Tychonism, especially Schofield (1984). In conclusion I will suggest that the historical longevity of Tychonism has been considerably underestimated and al- so that Tychonists were not generally restrained from public endorsement of heliocentrism by religious pres- sure. On the contrary, I suggest that the continued ac- ceptance of Tychonism was conditioned by its congru- ence with scientists’ religious beliefs.

Decoding narratives on halo phenomena: an approach to Tycho Brahe's Vision of Urania in De nova stella (1573)

Dagmar Luise Neuhäuser — 2025-06-09

The booklet De nova stella, published by Tycho Brahe in 1573, contains various texts, some of which have little to do with the stellar explosion known today as a supernova: Towards the end there is a poem In Uraniam Elegia Autoris, 232 verses long, in which Tycho condenses a visionary encounter with the goddess of the muses, Urania. But who or what is "Urania"? Is it just a literary fiction, an allegory of the supernova, an epiphany in the style of Ovid, a self-reflection projected onto the outside world? In a close reading, text passages that have re- ceived less attention so far are decoded - the evidence found in the process makes it clear: Tycho's "Urania" has a fundamentum in re. An hitherto underexposed side of the Renaissance scholar becomes visible: Tycho Brahe as a gifted observer of rare meteorological phenomena, who stands in the tradition of halo visionaries. The first part of the article attempts to provide an introduction to this complex subject.

Francesco Ingoli’s Relazione delle Quattro Parti del Mondo: Charting New Pathways in the History of Political Thought

Alberto Fabris — 2025-06-09

In this paper, I explore new research paths to reevaluate the significance of Francesco Ingoli as a political thinker. This reassessment is conducted through a philosophical and conceptual analysis of his work as the General Secretary of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. I focus particularly on his Relazione delle Quattro Parti del Mondo (circa 1631), a text where Ingoli merges data from missionary reports and scholarly treatises with his own insights on global geography, politics, and anthropology proposing an innovative perspective on newly discovered regions. Despite the importance of Ingoli’s work, attesting to the deep resemantisation of political space that resulted from 16th and 17th-century geographical discoveries, an in-depth assessment of his political thought from the perspective of political philosophy is still largely missing. In particular, by means of an enquiry into the Church’s efforts in adapting evangelization strategies across different regions of the world, including the development of a cosmopolitan and multilingual clergy, and the gathering of detailed information on the geographical, cultural, and ethnic characteristics of each area, sometimes even through indigenous correspondents, I intend to point out possible ways to explore the global interconnections that emerged at the dawn of early modernity. Finally, this paper aims to shed new light on the impact of extra-European contributions on Western culture, as well as on Early Modernity as a global and multipolar phenomenon, characterized by cultural hybridization and reciprocal transfer.

Lightning in a Wine Cask: Vernacular Meteorology and Terminology in the Goodly Gallerye of William Fulke

Kristin Raffa — 2025-06-09

Lightning and thunderbolts have been sources of wonder since classical antiquity. Interpretations of these aerial and destructive phenomena had roots in the Homeric tradition and further evolved in the meteorological writings of Aristotle and others. In Aristotelian and early encyclopedic writings, lightning and thunderbolts were explained as different manifestations of the dry exhalation or wind. Writers categorized thunderbolts based on their subtlety, speed, and effects. In the sixteenth cen- tury, William Fulke viewed thunderbolts similarly to his antique predecessors but interpreted wondrous aspects and categorizations in light of the scientific and religious convictions of Elizabethan England. His English meteorological text, Goodly Gallerye, demonstrates an attempt to standardize terminology in the vernacular while also maintaining continuity in descriptions and interpretations of lightning and thunderbolts. This continuity can also be seen in subsequent writers on lightning and thunderbolts who used chymical theories of meteorology.

Paving the Way of Ideas: Pierre Gassendi’s Epistemology and Its Reception up to Locke

Simone Bresci — 2025-06-09

This paper aims to outline some features of Pierre Gassendi’s epistemology and its reception in John Locke. To do so, I will also analyze a few potential intermediaries between Gassendi and Locke, that is, the socalled Port-Royal Logic and Gilles de Launay’s Essais logiques. Then, I will address Locke’s manuscript drafts of his well-known Essay, showing the extent to which he endorses Gassendi’s objections to Descartes. According to the present interpretation, Gassendi’s epistemology is mainly a polemical weapon for Locke. Accordingly, the present tentative inquiry aims to place Locke’s ‘New Way of Ideas’ in a wider context of anti-Cartesian claims. Ironically, the framework in which both Gassendi and Locke articulated these anti-Cartesian claims is entirely Cartesian, resulting from his epistemological shift towards ideas.