Nicole Oresme
Nicole Oresme | |
---|---|
Nicole Oresme (French:
Life
Nicole Oresme was born c. 1320–1325 in the village of Allemagnes (today's
Oresme studied the "arts" in
In 1348, he was a student of theology in Paris.
In 1356, he received his doctorate and in the same year he became grand master (grand-maître) of the College of Navarre.
In 1364, he was appointed dean of the Cathedral of Rouen. Around 1369, he began a series of translations of Aristotelian works at the request of Charles V, who granted him a pension in 1371 and, with royal support, was appointed bishop of Lisieux in 1377. In 1382, he died in Lisieux.[10]
Scientific work
Cosmology
In his Livre du ciel et du monde Oresme discussed a range of evidence for and against the daily
Critiques of astrology
In his mathematical work, Oresme developed the notion of incommensurate fractions, fractions that could not be expressed as powers of one another, and made probabilistic, statistical arguments as to their relative frequency.
Oresme's critique of astrology in his Livre de divinacions treats it as having six parts.[18] The first, essentially astronomy, the movements of heavenly bodies, he considers good science but not precisely knowable. The second part deals with the influences of the heavenly bodies on earthly events at all scales. Oresme does not deny such influence, but states, in line with a commonly held opinion,[19] that it could either be that arrangements of heavenly bodies signify events, purely symbolically, or that they actually cause such events, deterministically. Mediaevalist Chauncey Wood remarks that this major elision "makes it very difficult to determine who believed what about astrology".[19]
The third part concerns predictiveness, covering events at three different scales: great events such as plagues, famines, floods and wars; weather, winds and storms; and medicine, with influences on the
Sense perception
In discussing the propagation of light and sound, Oresme adopted the common medieval doctrine of the multiplication of species,
Mathematics
Oresme's most important contributions to mathematics are contained in Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum et motuum. In a quality, or accidental form, such as heat, he distinguished the intensio (the degree of heat at each point) and the extensio (as the length of the heated rod). These two terms were often replaced by latitudo and longitudo. For the sake of clarity, Oresme conceived the idea of visualizing these concepts by plane figures, approaching what we would now call rectangular
He shows that his method of figuring the latitude of forms is applicable to the movement of a point, on condition that the time is taken as longitude and the speed as latitude; quantity is, then, the space covered in a given time. In virtue of this transposition, the theorem of the latitudo uniformiter difformis became the law of the space traversed in case of uniformly varied motion; thus Oresme published what was taught over two centuries prior to
In De configurationibus Oresme introduces the concept of curvature as a measure of departure from straightness, for circles he has the curvature as being inversely proportional to radius and attempts to extend this to other curves as a continuously varying magnitude.[29]
Significantly, Oresme developed the first proof of the
Oresme was the first mathematician to prove this fact, and (after his proof was lost) it was not proven again until the 17th century by Pietro Mengoli.[31]
He also worked on fractional powers, and the notion of probability over infinite sequences, ideas which would not be further developed for the next three and five centuries, respectively.[16]: 142–3
On local motion
Oresme, like many of his contemporaries such as
Political thought
Oresme provided the first modern vernacular translations of
It has traditionally been thought that Oresme's Aristotelian translations had a major influence on
Economics
With his Treatise on the origin, nature, law, and alterations of money (De origine, natura, jure et mutationibus monetarum), one of the earliest manuscripts devoted to an
Psychology
Oresme was known to be a well rounded psychologist. He practiced the technique of “inner senses” and studied the perception of the world. Oresme contributed to 19th and 20th century psychology in the fields of cognitive psychology, perception psychology, psychology of consciousness, and psychophysics. Oresme discovered the psychology of unconscious and came up with the theory of unconscious conclusion of perception. He developed many ideas beyond quality, quantity, categories and terms which were labeled “theory of cognition”.[48]
Posthumous reputation
Oresme's economic thought remained well regarded centuries after his death. In a 1920 Essay on Medieval Economic Teaching, Irish economist George O'Brien summed up the favorable academic consensus over Oresme's Treatise on the origin, nature, law, and alterations of money:
The merits of this work have excited the unanimous admiration of all who have studied it. Roscher says that it contains 'a theory of money, elaborated in the fourteenth century, which remains perfectly correct to-day, under the test of the principles applied in the nineteenth century, and that with a brevity, a precision, a clarity, and a simplicity of language which is a striking proof of the superior genius of its author.' According to Brants, 'the treatise of Oresme is one of the first to be devoted ex professo to an economic subject, and it expresses many ideas which are very just, more just than those which held the field for a long period after him, under the name of mercantilism, and more just than those which allowed of the reduction of money as if it were nothing more than a counter of exchange.' 'Oresme's treatise on money,' says Macleod, 'may be justly said to stand at the head of modern economic literature. This treatise laid the foundations of monetary science, which are now accepted by all sound economists.' 'Oresme's completely secular and naturalistic method of treating one of the most important problems of political economy,' says Espinas, 'is a signal of the approaching end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance.' Dr. Cunningham adds his tribute of praise: 'The conceptions of national wealth and national power were ruling ideas in economic matters for several centuries, and Oresme appears to be the earliest of the economic writers by whom they were explicitly adopted as the very basis of his argument…. A large number of points of economic doctrine in regard to coinage are discussed with much judgment and clearness.' Endemann alone is inclined to quarrel with the pre-eminence of Oresme; but on this question, he is in a minority of one.[49]
Selected works in English translation
- Nicole Oresme's De visione stellarum (On seeing the stars): a critical edition of Oresme's treatise on optics and atmospheric refraction, translated by Dan Burton, (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007, ISBN 9789004153707)
- Nicole Oresme and the marvels of nature: a study of his De causis mirabilium, translated by Bert Hansen, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985, ISBN 9780888440686)
- Questiones super quatuor libros meteororum, in SC McCluskey, ed, Nicole Oresme on Light, Color and the Rainbow: An Edition and Translation, with introduction and critical notes, of Part of Book Three of his Questiones super quatuor libros meteororum (PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1974, Google Books)
- Nicole Oresme and the kinematics of circular motion: Tractatus de commensurabilitate vel incommensurabilitate motuum celi, translated by Edward Grant, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971)
- Nicole Oresme and the medieval geometry of qualities and motions: a treatise on the uniformity and difformity of intensities known as Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum et motuum, translated by Marshall Clagett, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971, OCLC 894)
- Le Livre du ciel et du monde. A. D. Menut and A. J. Denomy, ed. and trans. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968, ISBN 9780783797878)
- De proportionibus proportionum and Ad pauca respicientes. Edward Grant, ed. and trans. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966, ISBN 9780299040000)
- The De moneta of N. Oresme, and English Mint documents, translated by C. Johnson, (London, 1956)[50]
See also
- List of multiple discoveries
- Science in the Middle Ages
- Oresme (crater)
- List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
Notes
- ^ Hans Blumenberg, The Genesis of the Copernican World, MIT Press, 1987, p. 158.
- ^ a b Duhem, Pierre (1911). "Nicole Oresme". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, Madison. 1959, p. 522.
- ^ Marshall Clagett (ed.), Critical Problems in the History of Science, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969, p. 95: "[W]hen one asks more specifically what, for example, Galileo or Descartes actually knew and what use they made of the dynamics of impetus or of fourteenth-century Oxford kinematics or of Oresme's graphical methods, the evidence becomes difficult and unsatisfactory."
- ^ Dan Burton (ed.), De Visione Stellarum, BRILL, 2007, p. 19 n. 8.
- ISBN 978-2-8011-0581-8.
- ISBN 978-9027712158.
- ^ Edward Grant, ed., De proportionibus proportionum and Ad pauca respicientes, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Pr., 1966), p. 4.
- ^ William J. Courtenay, The Early Career of Nicole Oresme, Isis, Vol. 91, No.3 (Sept. 2000), pp 542–548.
- ^ Edward Grant, ed., De proportionibus proportionum and Ad pauca respicientes, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Pr., 1966), pp. 4–10.
- ^ Edward Grant, The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 114–16.
- ^ Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde, pp. 521–3
- ^ Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde, p. 531
- ^ Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde, p. 535
- ^ Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde, p. 537
- ^ ISBN 9780801865695.
- ^ Oresme, Ad pauca respicientes, p. 383.
- ^ Coopland, G. W. (1952). Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers: A Study of his Livre de Divinacions. Harvard University Press; Liverpool University Press. pp. 53–57.
- ^ a b c Wood, 1970. p. 9
- ^ Wood, 1970. pp. 8–11
- ^ Bert Hansen, Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of Nature (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985), pp. 89–90.
- ^ David C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, (Chicago: University of Chicago Pr., 1976), pp. 78–80, 98, 113–16.
- ^ Peter Marshall, "Nicole Oresme on the Nature, Reflection, and Speed of Light," Isis, 72 (1981): 357–374, pp. 360–2.
- ISBN 0-299-04880-2
- ISBN 0-299-04880-2
- ISBN 0-299-04880-2
- JSTOR 2683467
- ISBN 978-1-584-88784-3.
- doi:10.1090/noti1275.
- ^ Oresme, Nicole (c. 1360). Quaestiones super Geometriam Euclidis [Questions concerning Euclid's Geometry].
- ISBN 9781402757969,
Nicole Oresme ... was the first to prove the divergence of the harmonic series (c. 1350). His results were lost for several centuries, and the result was proved again by Italian mathematician Pietro Mengoli in 1647 and by Swiss mathematician Johann Bernoulli in 1687.
- ^ .
- ^ "NASC 400 History of Science to 1700 / Mechanics and Motion in the Middle Ages". nasc400.pbworks.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
- ^ a b Caroti, Stefano (1993). "Oresme on Motion (Questiones Super Physicam, III, 2–7)". Vivarium: Journal for Mediaeval Philosophy and the Intellectual Life of the Middle Ages. 31: 8–36 – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ Mario Grignaschi: Nicolas Oresme et son commentaire à la «Politique» d'Aristote, in: Album Helen Maud Cam, Louvain 1960 (Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 23), 95–151, esp. 99–106.
- ^ Shulamith Shahar: Nicolas Oresme, un penseur politique indépendant de l'entourage du roi Charles V, in: L'information historique 32 (1970), 203–209.
- ^ Mario Grignaschi: Nicolas Oresme et son commentaire à la «Politique» d'Aristote, in: Album Helen Maud Cam, Louvain 1960 (Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 23), 95–151, esp. 111–112; Jacques Krynen: Aristotélisme et réforme de l'Etat, en France, au XIVe siècle, in: Jürgen Miethke (ed.): Das Publikum politischer Theorie im 14. Jahrhundert, München 1992 (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 21), 225–236, esp. 231–232; James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 221–225.
- ^ Susan M. Babbitt: Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V., in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 75,1 (1985), 1–158, esp. 83–84; Ulrich Meier: Molte revoluzioni, molte novità. Gesellschaftlicher Wandel im Spiegel der politischen Philosophie und im Urteil von städtischen Chronisten des späten Mittelalters, in: Jürgen Miethke, Klaus Schreiner (eds.): Sozialer Wandel im Mittelalter. Wahrnehmungsformen, Erklärungsmuster, Regelungsmechanismen, Sigmaringen 1994, 119–176, esp. 127–129.
- ^ James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 211–212.
- ^ Jacques Krynen: L'empire du roi. Ideés et croyances politiques en France. XIIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 1993, 266–272.
- ^ James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 203–242.
- ^ Jacques Krynen: L'empire du roi. Ideés et croyances politiques en France. XIIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 1993, 110–124, 343–456.
- ^ Shulamith Shahar: Nicolas Oresme, un penseur politique indépendant de l'entourage du roi Charles V, in: L'information historique 32 (1970), 203–209; Vanina Kopp: Der König und die Bücher. Sammlung, Nutzung und Funktion der königlichen Bibliothek am spätmittelalterlichen Hof in Frankreich, Ostfildern 2016 (Beihefte der Fancia, 80).
- ^ Susan M. Babbitt: Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V., in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 75,1 (1985), 1–158, esp. 98–146.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 5–43, esp. 9.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 30; Cary J. Nederman: A Heretic Hiding in Plain Sight. The Secret History of Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis in the Thought of Nicole Oresme, in: John Christian Laursen u.a. (eds.): Heresy in Transition. Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, London 2005 (Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700), 71–88.
- S2CID 159539712.
- ^ "Nicole Oresme".
- ^ O'Brien, George, An Essay on Medieval Economic Teaching, pp.217-218.
- JSTOR 43626716.
References
- ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.
- Clagett, Marshall (1968). Nicole Oresme and the Medieval Geometry of Qualities and Motions: A Treatise on the Uniformity and Difformity of Intensities Known as Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum at motuum. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
- ISBN 0-299-05830-1.
- Hansen, Bert (1985). Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of Nature: A Study of his De causis mirabilium with Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. ISBN 0-88844-068-5.
- Mäkeler, Hendrik (2003). "Nicolas Oresme und Gabriel Biel: Zur Geldtheorie im späten Mittelalter". Scripta Mercaturae: Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte. 37 (1): 56–94. (covers Oresme's monetary theory).
- Wood, Chauncey (1970). Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetical Uses of Astrological Imagery. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-06172-6.
- Labellarte, Alberto (a cura di) (2016). Nicola Oresme. Trattato sull'origine, la natura, il diritto e i cambiamenti del denaro. Testo latino a fronte. Bari: Stilo Editrice. ISBN 978-88-6479-158-6.
External links
- Works by or about Nicole Oresme at Internet Archive
- (SPC) MSS BH 100 COCH Volume of works by Nicole Oresme, Maffeo Vegio, and Jordanus von Osnabrück at OPenn
- Kirschner, Stefan (2021). "Nicole Oresme". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy..
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Nicole Oresme", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- Oresme biography
- Article on Oresme's monetary theory
- The De Moneta of Nicholas Oresme and English Mint Documents (pdf)
- Tractatus de Origine, Natura, Jure et Mutationibus Monetarum (Latin)