Science et tradition hermétique

This work comprises three texts by Frances Yates, which deal with one of the subjects of choice of this leading British historian: the role played by Hermetic and Rosicrucian tradition in the history of ideas, in Europe, at the pivotal moment of the Renaissance and in the 17th Century. It would be easy to imagine these two traditions hindering the development of scientific thought. Contrary to what we might think, Frances Yates shows that on certain essential points, they actually brought about changes to people’s thinking and made the emergence of modern science possible, such as, amongst other things, the two iconic discoveries of modern rationality: Copernicus’ Heliocentrism and Newton’s physics. It is perhaps from the secretive knowledge of the cosmos and the powers that the magi of the Renaissance professed to possess that the ambition which defines modern science originates: to know nature’s secrets in order to master it, to provide man with the means to influence it in order to transform it. And the renewed interest in mathematics, viewed as the key to reality, is not without its own connection to the Kabbalah and the powers that it attributed to numbers... 

• La tradition hermétique dans la science de la Renaissance
• Copernic
• Newton