Du Châtelet Prize Workshop: Descartes' Metaphysical Physics

Congratulations to Ovidiu Babeș for his lecture on his prize-winning paper, “Mixed Mathematics and Metaphysical Physics: Descartes and the Mechanics of the Flow of Water”. Ovidiu’s paper investigates the complex interplay between physics and mechanics in Descartes’ quantitative explanation of the flow of water, showing the creativity in Descartes’s attempts to bridge the mechanical and the physical, and the difficulties that ensue for his natural philosophy.

The topic of this year’s prize was “Descartes’s Metaphysical Physics”, in honor of the 30th anniversary of Dan Garber’s highly influential book of that title, and the workshop was on the same theme.

My thanks to everyone who participated in the workshop, and especially to the committee members.

We enjoyed talks from Dan Garber, Sophie Roux, Alison Peterman, Dana Jalobeanu, Roger Ariew and Bill Eaton. And there was plenty of time for discussion.