Between Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment: Jean-Robert Chouet and the Introduction of Cartesian Science in the Academy of Geneva (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 259 not seem to be taken into account, nor are a number of other recent studies by C. Vasoli, H. Jaegei, and G. Tonelli. Something seems to have gone wrong with the Personenregister, for there are a number of important omissions, including the tailend of the alphabet, so names such as "Zabarella" and "Zwinger" are not found there. In spite of these and other minor shortcomings it must be concluded that this is an important book which should help to open up a vast and fascinating area for research. It is handsomely produced and contains a number of useful illustrations, especially of the complex dichotomous and other tables, diagrams, schemata, and metaphorical designs which abound in the volumes studied. It should go into all libraries where the study of early modern intellectual history is taken seriously. CHARLES B. SCHMITT The Warburg Institute Michael Heyd. Between Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment: Jean-Robert Chouet and the Introduction of Cartesian Science m the Academy of Geneva. International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol. 96. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982. Pp. xiii + 3o8. $65.oo (cloth). Heyd undertakes "a study of the development of philosophy in this period ... [to] bring into sharper focus the elements of continuity and change in the transition from a scholastic to a Cartesian philosophy of nature" (4). He is concerned with the relation of science and religion in the last third of the seventeenth century, and in particular with the question of whether or not the introduction of secular subjects in the academies and universities was accompanied by ideological disputes. His detailed study of the introduction of Cartesian science into the Geneva Academy is meant to be a test both of Hazard's thesis that secularization took place during crisis and Kuhn's thesis that paradigm change is revolutionary. Thus Heyd answers three questions: "In what manner and under what conditions was the new science introduced at a traditional educational institution? What was the relationship between the diffusion of new philosophical and scientific attitudes and the phenomenon usually referred to as the 'secularization' of European high culture after x66o? And finally, in what way and to what extent did Calvinism facilitate these processes?" (236) . Focusing on the Academy of Geneva founded in 1559 by Calvin primarily to train pastors, Heyd shows that the transition from a somewhat eclectic Aristotelian science to a mechanical, basically Cartesian science was gradual, natural, and almost without ideological conflict. Secular subjects such as mathematics had long been taught by private teachers in Geneva, and by the time the practical citizens successfully petitioned for a Professor of Mathematics, the Academy was more than ready to make a place for one. Influential in all phases of the transition was the Cartesian Jean-Robert Chouet-student , professor, and eventual Rector of the Academy, and also citizen and first Syndic, the highest official in the Genevan government. Chouet taught the new 960 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY physics in scholastic form, and he gave exhibitions of experiments to the general public much as did the Cartesian Rohauit in Paris. Like Descartes, Chouet professed no concern with theology, but unlike Descartes he managed always to steer clear of theological disputes. Chouet's ability to remain neutral on theology certainly stemmed in part from his Calvinistic doctrine of accommodation. Matters of faith and religion were clearly separated from matters of empirical evidence and science. Neither the citizens of Geneva nor the pastors of the Academy viewed the new science as a threat to religion . Rather, they saw it as offering advantages in practical matters such as engineering for Iocat defense and construction, and in attracting non-local students to the Academy. Under J. A. Turrettini--another member of a local Genevan family--even the teaching of theology became practical, as Turrettini separated firmly the natural and supernatural spheres. Thus, if Heyd has a case that undercuts Hazard's thesis about the crisis of secularization in the seventeenth century, it is one that also goes some distance toward supporting Tawney's thesis about the favorable influence of Protestant religion on the rise of capitalism. Heyd's book is an excellent historical study, replete with much quantitative data...