The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution
Subtitle: Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the Cultivation of Virtue
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: October 1, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780226409559
Subjects: Ethics & moral philosophy; Philosophy of science; Science; Science/Mathematics; History; Science / History; 17th century; Mathematics; Moral and ethical aspects; Philosophy
Description: "The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their new work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life. Their scientific and philosophical innovations stemmed in part from their understanding of mathematics and science as cognitive and spiritual exercises that could create a truer mental and spiritual nobility. In portraying the rich contexts surrounding Descartes' geometry, Pascal's arithmetical triangle, and Leibniz's calculus, Matthew L. Jones argues that this drive for moral therapeutics guided important developments of early modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution."--Publisher's website.

'The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution' presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life.