Pierre Gassendi
1592-1655
French Natural Philosopher, Mathematician, and Priest
Pierre Gassendi is best known as the seventeenth-century rehabilitator of the atomism of the ancient Greek moralist and ...
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Gassendi, Pierre(1592–1655)
Pierre Gassendi, the leading French seventeenth-century skeptical and Epicurean philosopher and scientist, was born at Champtercier, a Provençal village in Fr...
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Dr. William Rand translated Gassendi's early Life of Peiresc into English as The Mirrour of True Nobility and Gentility. In this excerpt from the work's dedicatory epistle addressed to t...
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In the following excerpt, Osler explicates the voluntarism that permeates Gassendi's work, placing his development of a mechanical philosophy in the context of seventeenth-century theological c...
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In this excerpt, Sarasohn discusses the progress from Gassendi's idea of natural man to his construction of the social contracts that buttress a system of government. Frequently contrasting Gas...
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In the excerpt below, Spink considers Gassendi's adaptations of Epicurus, comparing Gassendi's work with Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. The critic also examines Gassendi's Syn...
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In the following essay, Bloch discusses Gassendi as a transitional figure in the development of modern thought, focusing on his materialism and his epistemology. Bloch argues for the unrecognized impo...
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In this excerpt, Popkin considers the work of Gassendi in the context of the so-called French libertines of the seventeenth century. The critic debunks the myth of the libertine philosopher as a disso...
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In this excerpt, Joy considers Gassendi as a historian, using an examination of his early Life of Peiresc to demonstrate the development of his historiography. Finally, Joy proposes, Gassendi's...
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In this essay, Glidden demonstrates how Gassendi's reading of Epicurus—transmitted via Thomas Stanley's translation of Philosophiae Epicuri Syntagma—influenced the developm...
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In this essay, the Michaels argue strongly for Gassendi's considerable influence on John Locke, discussing possible sources for Locke's knowledge of Gassendi and comparing passages from ...
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In this excerpt from his study of literature and culture in Restoration England, Kroll argues for Gassendi's importance to the importation of Epicureanism into England. Emphasizing motifs of ci...
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In this excerpt, Lennon considers in depth Gassendi's Objections to René Descartes' Meditations. Focusing on the problem of representation, Lennon defends Gassendi from the charge...
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Pierre Gassendi
Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655)
Critical Essay by William Rand
