 French
philosopher and scientist. A teacher and priest, Gassendi taught at Digne,
Aix, and the Royal College at Paris and held several church offices. He
ranked with the leading mathematicians of his day. He violently opposed
the authoritarianism of Aristotle, especially in the Exercitationes
paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos (1624). He revived and interpreted
the atomic theory of Democritus and Epicurus in terms of the new science,
thereby opposing the Cartesian school, and also attempted to reconcile
atomism and Epicurean ethics with the teachings of the church. |