André LALANDE (1867-1963), philosopher. - Lot 283

Lot 283
Go to lot
Estimation :
400 - 500 EUR
André LALANDE (1867-1963), philosopher. - Lot 283
André LALANDE (1867-1963), philosopher. 3 autograph letters signed to Alexandre Koyré. 4 pp. in-4 and 6 pp. in-8. Albi, 1940-1945. Beautiful and long letters written during the war, in particular about Bacon and his Galilean Studies which "are of remarkable richness, erudition and finesse of interpretation. I have learned a great deal from them. Your distinction between the science, or rather the philosophy of science, which thinks of all material objects as a world, a cosmos, and that which thinks of it as a universe is very striking [...]". But he contradicts him on one point and explains himself at length. "Perhaps you have been misled by Bachelard's last book, which makes Bacon say a lot of absurd things [...]". "If Bacon is not known more exactly, don't think that it is my fault. I dedicated my Latin thesis to him in 1899: Quid de mathematica senserit Baconus Verulamius; in 1900, at the Congress of the History of Science, I made a communication on this curious Valerius Terminus (unfinished, like all his philosophical works) where he sketches the universal geometry in the manner of Descartes, of which he makes a sort of secret recipe for discoveries, to be reserved for scholars who are at the same time wise, such as those of the New Atlantis [...]. Naturally, I do not believe any more than you do that Bacon was the "initiator of modern science". Modern science, in my opinion, was made like rivers, from a multiplicity of streams and tributaries. This convergence is moreover the usual rhythm of the works of the mind, quite opposed in that to the biological diagram of the differentiation, producing a trunk and branches [...] ".
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue