La precision dans la mesure du temps et la Nouvelle Philosophie: Étude de cas (Alexandre Koyré & Richard Westfall)

Abstract

The 17th century is considered to be a century of great upheaval, of a real transformation in the way scholars apprehended the world. This change, for the majority of historical studies, goes hand in hand with the birth of the so-called New Natural Philosophy. It is argued that before the 17th century, in order to describe, understand and explain the world, scholars used a philosophictheological language that was later replaced by a mathematical (geometrical) language. This new way of contemplating and trying to understand the world is often associated, rightly or wrongly, with the birth of the quest for accuracy, and more precisely for accuracy in time measurement. By means of a case study, this article seeks to question this link highlighted by historians of the second half of the twentieth century. The present article is a study of two key articles that share the same object, accuracy in time measurement, written by two authors who have influenced, and still do, a large part of scholarly thinking, Alexander Koyre and Richard Westfall.