Pierre Gassendi

• 1. Birth In Champtercier

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  Pierre Gassendi arrived in the world on the 22nd of January 1592 within the quiet village of Champtercier. His father Antoine and mother Françoise Fabry raised him there near Digne. Thomas Fabry, his maternal uncle who served as curé of the local church, guided his earliest education. This young boy displayed academic potential at a very early age. He attended the collège at Digne where he showed particular aptitude for languages and mathematics. By 1609 he entered the University of Aix-en-Provence to study philosophy under Philibert Fesaye. The college of Digne called him back in 1612 to lecture on theology. He traveled to Senez where Bishop Jacques Martin gave him minor orders. In 1614 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Avignon. On the 1st of August 1617 he received holy orders from Bishop Jacques Turricella of Marseille. At age 24 he accepted the chair of philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence.

• 2. Observing Mercury Transit

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  Gassendi became the first person to observe the transit of a planet across the Sun in 1631. He viewed the transit of Mercury that Kepler had predicted with great care. In December of the same year he watched for the transit of Venus but it occurred when it was night time in Paris. He used a camera obscura to gauge the apparent diameter of the Moon during these observations. His work included dropping a stone from the mast of a ship to conserve horizontal momentum. This experiment removed an objection to the rotation of the Earth. He measured the speed of sound to about 25% accuracy showing it is invariant of pitch. Gassendi explained parhelia in 1629 as due to ice crystals. He provided a satisfactory interpretation of Pascal's Puy-de-Dôme experiment with a barometer in the late 1640s. These actions suggested a created vacuum is possible and advanced empirical methods significantly.

• 3. Reconciling Atomism And Faith

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  His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity through works like Syntagma philosophicum. The treatise De vita, moribus, et doctrina Epicuri libri octo appeared in 1647 and received well-received attention. Two years later his commentary on the tenth book of Diogenes Laërtius emerged alongside the more important commentary Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri. While approving of the Epicurean physics he rejected the Epicurean negation of God and particular providence. He stated various proofs for the existence of an immaterial infinite supreme Being who authored the visible universe. At the same time he held the doctrine of an immaterial rational soul endowed with immortality. Friedrich Albert Lange claimed that all this portion of Gassendi's system contains nothing of his own opinions but is introduced solely from motives of self-defence. The positive exposition of atomism had much that was attractive yet the hypothesis of calor vitalis did not seem to throw light on special problems.

• 4. Debating Descartes Publicly

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  In 1640 Mersenne engaged him in controversy with René Descartes regarding mind-body dualism. His objections to the fundamental propositions of Descartes appeared in print in 1641 as the Fifth Set of Objections. Though Descartes is often credited with the discovery of the mind-body problem Gassendi was the first to state it. Jean-Baptiste Morin attacked his De motu impresso a motore translato in 1642. In 1645 he accepted the chair of mathematics in the Collège Royal in Paris and lectured for several years with great success. Around 1648 ill-health compelled him to give up his lectures at the Collège Royal. He became reconciled to Descartes after years of coldness through the good offices of César d'Estrées. Gassendi maintained that evidence of the senses remains the only convincing evidence while also arguing that evidence of reason is absolutely satisfactory.

• 5. Leading The Tétrade Circle

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  He spent much time in Paris where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals known as the Tétrade. This circle included Gabriel Naudé Élie Diodati and François de La Mothe Le Vayer alongside Gassendi himself. During this period he gave informal philosophy classes gaining pupils or disciples including Molière and Cyrano de Bergerac. His influence extended to contemporaries like Thomas Hobbes whom he met when he returned to Paris in 1641. Gassendi belonged to the fideist wing of the sceptics arguing that absence of certain knowledge implied room for faith. Samuel Sorbière a disciple recounted Gassendi's life in the first collected edition of works by Joseph Bougerel published in 1737. Jean Philibert Damiron wrote Mémoire sur Gassendi in 1839 which further documented his legacy within these intellectual circles.

• 6. Advocating Vegetarian Ethics

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  Gassendi argued against the consumption of meat considering it a significant obstacle to achieving a divine vision. He supported his case for vegetarianism with arguments from medicine history and scripture. Drawing support from Neoplatonic vegetarians and early Christian thinkers he aligned vegetarianism with Christian doctrines. He envisioned a restored paradise where humans and animals coexisted in peaceful dominion contrary to tyranny displayed in butchering animals for pleasure. Gassendi himself was not a vegetarian but admitted that if he were wise he would abandon meat bit by bit. He stated I do not doubt that I would be happier for longer and more constantly in better health. A Catholic priest he advocated for a plant-based diet without dogmatism asserting decisions in this lifetime were crucial for preparing body and mind for the next.