科学史视角下的笛卡尔 《哲学原理》新探

Study Descartes from the Perspective of History of Science A new inquiry into Principles of Philosophy

笛卡尔《哲学原理》是其哲学体系最综合全面的呈现,但书中大篇幅的物理讨论及其“过时”的世界图景,使其一直以来既远离了哲学研究的视野,也不受现代科学界的重视。本文试图从科学思想史的视角,重新挖掘该书的历史意义。相比于传统的经院物理学,《哲学原理》开辟了一种新的治学风格,该风格与近代科学的崛起密切相关。笛卡尔的结论虽与现代物理解释迥异,但诸多关键概念的和整体世界图景的变革,却拓宽了当时人理解世界的边界与可能性。因此,这一整全和融贯的自然哲学体系,实际构成具有根源意义的近代早期科学的重要样本。国内学界应跟进对《哲学原理》的研究和译介,以探索、开拓科学史研究的新路径。

Descartes'Principles of Philosophy is the most comprehensive presentation of his philosophical system,but the extensive discussion of physics in the book and its“outdated”world picture have kept it away from the philosophical discussion nowadays and attention of the modern scientific community.This paper attempts to rediscover the historical significance of the book from the perspective of the intellectual history of science.Compared with traditional scholastic physics,Principles of Philosophy opens a new style of scientific investigation,which is closely related to the rise of modern science.Although Descartes'conclusions are quite different from modern physical explanations,the shifts in many key concepts and the overall world picture have broadened the boundaries and possibilities of contemporary understanding of the world.Therefore,this comprehensive and coherent natural philosophical system plays an important role of the early modern scientific form as a prototype.This paper also calls on domestic scholars to follow up the research and translation of the work,in order to explore a new path for the study of the history of science.