Giulia Lucarini, La Corporis et animae in homine conjunctio plenius descripta
di Johannes Clauberg 6/4/07©
(Capp. V, IX, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI)
Johannes Clauberg (1622-1665) is an important figure in XVIIth century Philosophy: his
bordeline position between the new Cartesian philosophy and the traditional aristotelic one is
the main feature of his thought. He kept the Cartesian distinction between res cogitans and res
extensa, but rejected the concept that these two substances – constitutive of the human being –
could really causally act on another. So Clauberg was one among the first to formulate a central
thesis of “occasionalism”. The principal expression of this aspect of his thought is founded in
his work Corporis et animae in homine conjunctio. The following is a translation of some
chapters of this work, after a brief introduction on Clauberg’s life and his contribution to
occasionalist thought.
Pierluigi Graziani, Massimo Sangoi, La macchina aritmetica di Blaise Pascal , 30/12/2005©
Foreword
This work presents the principal texts concerning the so-called Arithmetic Machine conceived by Blaise Pascal: they are translated into Italian and accompanied by notes. The first text is a dedicatory letter to Pierre Séguier (who was, during Pascal's times, Minister of Justice) who was an important supporter of the Pascalian project. The second text is a general presentation of the arithmetic machine. Here, Pascal does not only expose the merits of its invention, but also the problems that he had during its construction. Among the problems that Pascal complains about there is the plagiarism problem, to solve which the King granted to Pascal the Privilege, here translated as third and last text, that constitutes the recognition of the invention of the machine to Pascal.