CHAPTER II 



THE MECHANICAL N A T U R E - S Y ST E M S 



The period of the great systems 



THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY has been Called the period of great systems 

 of thought, during which all the knowledge that the Renaissance 

 brought to light was summarized and classified. Order and system 

 were, in fact, what this epoch strove to create in every sphere of life; in 

 government the power was concentrated in the hands of despotic princes 

 who by a rigorous exercise of power overcame all opposition on the part 

 of their subjects and created ordered forms of administration instead of the 

 universal unrest of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; in the religious 

 sphere the different denominations combined into stable churches which 

 prohibited any divergence from the strictly formulated dogmas which they 

 set up. Such a period was bound to be devoted to strictly delimited systems 

 even in the scientific field, and indeed many such systems of different trends 

 of thought, but all definitely formulated, more dogmatic than critical, based 

 upon speculation rather than upon observation, saw the light of day during 

 this epoch. Some of these which highly influenced the development of 

 biological science deserve further mention. 



The pioneer of modern philosophy 

 Rene Descartes (in his Latin writings he calls himself Cartesius) is com- 

 monly regarded as the pioneer amongst the systematic philosophers of the 

 seventeenth century. Born in 1596 of wealthy parents, he was able to devote 

 his whole life to research. His home was in Brittany, and he was brought 

 up by Jesuits; he spent some years in Paris and was for a time an engineer 

 officer in the service of foreign powers. In order that he might devote himself 

 to his science undisturbed by the Catholic Church, he eventually settled 

 down in Holland, where his most important work was done. He made a 

 journey to Sweden, and died in Stockholm in 1650. 



Descartes, like Pythagoras and Plato, was a mathematician, and like 

 them, too, addicted to abstract speculations. His ambition was to place sci- 

 ence on firm ground, valid for all possible phenomena, and excluding all 

 accidental circumstances. Among these latter he counted, above all, mental 

 impressions, and in order to exclude them he resolved to doubt everything 

 in existence. But the very fact of doubt proved that he thought, and thinking 

 gave him proof that he existed; " Je pense, done je suis" was his oft-quoted 



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