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date: 08 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter examines how the problem of the nature of body had become the central debate in the field of natural philosophy in England by the middle of the seventeenth century. It explains that the nature of the physical body is one of the major problems of seventeenth-century natural philosophy and that it began, at least in part, as a byproduct of a change in the philosophical vocabulary. The chapter also evaluates solutions proposed to address the problem concerning the nature of body, including those derived from theory of matter and mixed mathematics.

Keywords: nature of body, natural philosophy, England, physical body, philosophical vocabulary, theory of matter, mixed mathematics

Dana Jalobeanu

Dana Jalobeanu is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bucharest and Director of programmes at the Research Centre Foundations of Early Modern Thought. Her current research focuses on the emergence of early modern experimental philosophy, with a special interest in the writings of Francis Bacon and their reception. She has recently edited (with Peter Anstey) Vanishing Matter and the Laws of Motion: Descartes and Beyond (Routledge, 2011).

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