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Universi corporis pansophici caput summum. Works. I. (Universi corporis pansophici caput summum. Werke I. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Thomas Behme.) (Latin) Zbl 1096.01017

Clavis Pansophiae 3, 1. Stuttgart: Friedrich Frommann Verlag Günther Holzboog GmbH & Co. (ISBN 3-7728-1625-8/hbk). xxxii, 328 p. (2003).
This book is presented as a first step towards a critical edition of the work of Erhard Weigel. His work consists of more than 100 writings on topics from domains as different as mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, physics, pedagogy, juridical sciences, architecture, history, geography, ethics, mechanics and technology. As a teacher of Leibniz and Pufendorf he had an important influence on the development of philosophical and scientific thought in the 17th and 18th centuries. The text edited was first published in Jena 1673. It has its origins in lecture courses Weigel gave at the University of Jena. It was intended as a work of four parts of which only two were published. These two are the “prodomus” or “pantognosia” and the “pantologia”. The pantognosia deals with the epistemological foundations based on the theory of the three mental operations apprehension, composition and division, and syllogism. The pantologia or metaphysics develops the species, classes and predicates of what is. It deals with “everything on what we can think.” The first of the unfinished parts is the “pantometria” or “mathesis generalis” which was intended to discuss the general features of quantities as such. A “logica pansophia” was planned to finish this work by exposing the logic of the Aristotelian Organon in analogy with basic mathematical methods. The title “pansophicum” shows that Weigel’s project was connected to the idea of a universal science which aimed at participating in God’s wisdom.
The valuable introduction informs on context and composition of the text, including a characterization of its contents. A commentary of 48 pages explains extensively historical and philosophical aspects, informs about other relevant texts and persons, and gives cross references to further writings of Weigel. A table of contents of the missing parts, a chronological table, registers of names and subjects conclude this valuable volume.

MSC:

01A75 Collected or selected works; reprintings or translations of classics
01A45 History of mathematics in the 17th century
00A30 Philosophy of mathematics

Biographic References:

Weigel, Erhard