All are invited to join the upcoming meeting of the *Styles and Method in the Early-Modern and the Modern Period Seminar*
*Raz Chen-Morris *(Hebrew University of Jerusalem) *Fantasy, Scientific Thought and the End of Baroque Science* Date: *Tuesday 26 April 2022* Time: *17.30-19.30 (CEST/Rome Time)* Place: *Online* (Zoom) *No registration needed. Please click *here <http://unive.zoom.us/j/6569494316>* to attend the meeting* *Abstract* Since the early phases of the New Science, natural philosophers and mathematicians embraced fantastical stories and imaginary scenarios in order to undermine the traditional and well-entrenched Aritotelian and Ptolemaic systems of the world. Whether in Kepler's Somnium, or Galileo imaginary experiments, or Descartes' fictitious world-system, the assumption was that, in Shakepeare's words, only by "transfiguring" the audience's mind "so together" can a great constancy grow. This utopian notion that in traveling to another fantastical place one can learn the truth about one's own world pervaded much of 17th century scientific thought in its aspiration to fashion a new world-picture. Beginning with the 1660's, however, the notion of a fantastic travel became leverage for criticizing and exposing the vain presumptuousness of the "New Science". Margaret Cavendish, in her Blazing World, blatantly attacked the Royal Society, mocking its reliance on such instruments as the telescope and the microscope. The Jesuit Gabriel Daniel, in his Voiage du Monde de Descartes, used the trope of space traveling to ridicule the French philosophers' system of the world. Thus, at the end of the 17th century, leading savants such as Fontenelle or Huygens turned to speculate on planetary worlds, marginalizing the role of fantasy and instead seeking to establish a new astronomical and physical commonsense. *Speaker* Raz-Chen Morris <https://en.history.huji.ac.il/people/raz-chen-morris> is an associate professor in the History department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published widely on Renaissance science, concentrating on Kepler’s optics. His major publications to date are: *Measuring Shadows: Kepler's Optics of Invisibility *(Penn State University Press, 2016). With Ofer Gal, *Baroque Science* (The University of Chicago Press, 2013). Together with Ofer Gal he edited *Science in the Age of Baroque* (Springer 2012). Together with Hanan Yoran and Gur Zak, he edited a special issue of *The European Legacy*, (20:5, 2015) on *Humanism and the Ambiguities of Modernity*. *More information* This seminar is organized by Matteo Vagelli and is part of the activities of EPISTYLE <https://pric.unive.it/projects/epistyle/home>. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 101030646. Visit the website of the project <https://pric.unive.it/projects/epistyle/home> for more information and the complete program. Please note that the meeting will be recorded. By participating, you give your consent. -- Matteo Vagelli, PhD Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (Ca' Foscari University of Venice/Harvard University) *Style Matters: Scientific Pluralism and its Early-Modern Sources * https://unive.academia.edu/MatteoVagelli -- https://www.vidal-rosset.net/mailing_list_educasupphilo.html
