In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

258 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY agent intellect (based in great part on Philoponus and Themistius), but also some of James's own basic ideas on the nature of intellectual cognition and its relation to sense knowledge. The second quodlibet is composed of twenty-four questions, of which the more interesting are the fourth, which concerns rationes seminales; the fourteenth and fifteenth, which are about powers of the soul, namely, memory, intelligentia and will; and the seventeenth, which takes up the connection of the moral virtues to one another. Up to now we have had to depend on the studies of Benes, Casado, Grabmann, Lottin and Riissmann for a sampling of James's quodlibetal disputations, although the general monograph of Gutirrrez has of course also been extremely helpful. Students of medieval philosophy are thus greatly indebted to James's fellow Augustinian, Father Eelcko Ypma, for having made James's first two Quaestiones Quodlibeta available in a modern critical edition and it is to be hoped that he will soon publish an edition of the third as well. It should be added that his introduction to the first quodlibet is informative and very helpful as to the structure, procedure and various sources of the quodlibets. My only criticism of Ypma's edition, and it is a minor one, is his failure to identify William of Moerbeke's translation of Themistius's paraphrases on the De anima as the source of James's remarks about Themistius in Quodlibet I, q. 12, p. 160 and p. 170.2 In any case, all research libraries interested in medieval studies should possess this fine edition. EDWARDP. MAHONEY Duke University Le physicien lgnace Gaston Pardies S. J. (1636-1673). By August Ziggelaar, S. J. Acta historica scientiarum naturalium et medicinalium, Vol. 26. (Odense: Odense University Press, 1971. Pp. 242. Dan. kr. 60.00) The first book ever devoted solely to Ignace Gaston Pardies, this dissertation is a chapter in the history of science, hence in the history of philosophy, for philosophy in the seventeenth century still comprised natural philosophy. And the history of science, as interpreted by the author, concerns not only science but also history in a broad sense. Because of Pardies' graceful style, specialists in French literature will also find him of interest. Education by Jesuits is another theme. This book is a beautiful piece of scholarly research. Dr. Ziggelaar has followed Pardies step by step, read all his works, which are rare, delved into his background, and uncovered from a wealth of sources information that supplements and sometimes corrects older material on him. As a physicist, the author, after consulting the other historians of science who have touched on Pardies, modestly presents his own analyses and views. Pardies lived from 1636 to 1673. It was a golden age for scientists and philosophers to be born into, with its Renaissance-like enthusiasm for a broad spectrum of discoveries. Pardies avowed to Oldenburgh, secretary of the Royal Society "j'ay une passion extraordinaire pour les sciences" (p. 226). In the years from 1627 to 1646, great figures were born in rapid succession--Boyle in 1627; Christian Huyghens in 1629; Christopher Wren, 1631; 1632, Leeuwenhoeck and Spinoza; 1635, Robert Hooke; 1638, Malebranche; 1642, Newton; 1646, Leibniz. In the middle of this span, Pardies, less great but significant as a link in the chain of ideas, was born at Pau, the capital of Brarn that had not long since been annexed by France. At Pau, a stronghold of Calvinism, the Jesuits established a college where Pardies received his early education, joining the order at sixteen. With an optimistic belief not unlike Descartes' that man was on the threshhold of new 2 For a detailed examination of James's use of the Moerbeke translation of Themistius, see my article, "Themistius and the Agent Intellect in James of Viterbo and Other Thirteenth Century Philosophers (Saint Thomas, Siger of Brabant and Henry Bate)," Augustiniana 23 (1973). BOOK REVIEWS 259 truths, Pardies dedicated his popular Euclid without tears, the Elemens de Geometrie (1671), to the Messieurs de r Acadtmie des Sciences, whose "application . . . ~ faire des exptriences de Physique, ~tpolir les Arts, ~ enrichir les mathtmatiques de vos nouvelles dtcouvertes, feront voir bienttt que jamais...

pdf

Share