Method and Order in Rennaissance Philosophy of Nature

A collection of papers exploring method in 16th-century Aristotle commentaries. They begin with the theory of "regressus" and broaden out to encompass the historical and systematical context of the Renaissance theory, exploring various approaches to Renaissance natural philosophy. The volume results from a seminar sponsored by the ’Foundation for Intellectual History’ at the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, in 1992. Starting with the theory of regressus as displayed in its most developed form by William Wallace, these papers enter the vast field of the Renaissance discussion on method as such in its historical and systematical context. This is confined neither to the notion of method in the strict sense, nor to the Renaissance in its exact historical limits, nor yet to the Aristotelian tradition as a well defined philosophical school, but requires a new scholarly approach. Thus - besides Galileo, Zabarella and their circles, which are regarded as being crucial for the ’emergence of modern science’ in the end of the 16th century - the contributors deal with the ancient and medieval origins as well as with the early modern continuity of the Renaissance concepts of method and with ’non-regressive’ methodologies in the various approaches of Renaissance natural philosophy, including the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions.