Lo Melissa
J Hist Ideas. 2017;78(3):369-399. doi: 10.1353/jhi.2017.0022.
Throughout his Essais (1637), Descartes appropriated the visual language of practical mathematics in order to forge a new natural philosophy. This article argues that by grafting geometric line onto descriptive figure, the philosopher and his illustrator, Frans van Schooten Jr., underscored doubts about a natural philosophy based on qualities, all the while situating his new epistemology in the 17th-century present and exercising a deep attention to the differences between nature seen, nature pictured, and nature understood.
在其《试笔》（1637年）全书中，笛卡尔借鉴了实用数学的视觉语言，以创立一种新的自然哲学。本文认为，通过将几何线条嫁接到描述性图形上，这位哲学家及其插画师小弗兰斯·范·舒滕强调了对基于性质的自然哲学的质疑，与此同时将他的新认识论置于17世纪的当下，并深切关注被看到的自然、被描绘的自然和被理解的自然之间的差异。
