Alexandre Koyre (1892-1964): Commemoration

Author(s): I. Bernard Cohen and Marshall Clagett

Source: Isis, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), pp. 157-166
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
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 Alexandre Koyre (1892-1964)

COMMEMORATION

By I. Bernard Cohen *

Whoever examines the growth of the history of sci

three decades will discern at once the magistral in
Koyre.
The history of science is not a wholly new discipline. In the eighteenth
century its devotees included such masters as Joseph Priestley and J.-B.
Delambre; in the nineteenth century, inter alia, William Whewell, Ferdi-
nand Rosenberger, Moritz Cantor; followed in the twentieth century by
Pierre Duhem, Paul Tannery, Aldo Mieli, George Sarton, Lynn Thorndike,
P. V. Zoubov, O. Neugebauer, and many others. Nevertheless, the subject
* Harvard University.
This article is based upon a lecture given in in full will be published in the Proceedings
French at the inaugural session of the Sym- of the Symposium. We thank the editor of
posium on Galileo held in Florence and Pisa these Proceedings, Maria Luisa Bonelli, for
in September 1964. The original French text permission to publish this version.
Isis, 1966, VOL. 57, 2, No. 188.
157

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158 I. BERNARD COHEN

created by these scholars was radically altered about thir

see this change it is only necessary to leaf through the pag
of any of the journals in our field: Isis, Archeion (now the
Lychnos, and the rest. A new emphasis is discernible toda
absent some twenty or thirty years ago: a stress upon scienti
stood in their own terms and in relation to the living back
they were imbedded - in short, the method of conceptua
on the model set before us by Alexandre Koyre.1
The first glimpses of Koyre's method applied to subjects
history of science (rather than philosophy) were afforded
analysis of " Galilee et l'experience de Pise" in 1937,2 f
succession by " Galilee et Descartes" and Trois lefons
preludes to the tripartite Etudes Galileennes, published
which more than any other has been responsible for the
science.3 By this time Koyre's name was well known for a
and articles in French and in German, beginning with his
in 1912, "Sur les nombres de M. B. Russell," and inclu
Greek philosophy, the development of philosophical co
analysis of L'idee de Dieu . . . chez Descartes and L'idee
philosophie de S. Anselme), and works on Russian philoso
study of La philosophie et le mouvement national en Rus
xiXe siecle). There was also a brilliant series of articles on Hegel (now
happily reunited in a single book) and a pioneering set of analyses of
German mystics (Jacob Boehme, Valentin Weigel, Sebastien Frank, Caspar
Schwenkfeld, and also Paracelsus), these too now brought together in book
form. There were also editions and translations of classics, including the
Fides quaerens intellectum of St. Anselm, the De intellectus emendatione o
Spinoza, and the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium of Copernicus.
Looking back from today's vantage point, it is easy to see the direction
his work was taking: from St. Anselm and medieval philosophy to Paracelsus
and the sixteenth-century mystics, and then on to Copernicus, Descartes,
Galileo, and eventually Newton.

Each great scholar has certain special gifts, certain endowments of nature
which help us to define his particular genius. In the case of Alexandre
Koyre, we would first of all note a fluency in classical Greek and in classical

1 1 do not wish to imply that Alexandre 2 There were earlier publications on Par-
Koyr6 was the fons et origo of the method of acelsus (1933) and Copernicus (1933, 1
conceptual analysis in the history of science: they did not have the impact ofthe studi
certainly his predecessors include such thinkers Galleo; in retrospect they may be seen
as Lon
as Leon Brunschvicg,
Brunschvicg, Emile
Emile Meyerson,Ernst
Meyerson, Ernst3been
I do earnests of the
not include great work torefe
bibliographical co
Cassirer, and others. But Koyre applied him- since a bibliography of Alexandre Koyrs
self to problems in the history of science in a lications may be found in Melanges A
way and to a degree that these men did not, Koyre. Vol. 1: L'aventure de la scien
and he not only became the chief exponent of 2: L'aventure de l'esprit. Edited and
the new method, but by actual examples duced by I. Bernard Cohen and Ren6 Taton
showed us its power. (Paris: Hermann, 1964).

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 ALEXANDRE KOYR1 (1892-1964) 159

and medieval Latin, dating back to his youth in the lycees of Tiflis and of
Rostoff-on-the-Don in Imperial Russia. He knew modern languages,, of
course, and had an easy familiarity in reading, writing, and speaking English,
Italian, German, Russian, and French. He had pursued higher studies in
mathematics and physics at the University of Gottingen and had studied
philosophy at Gottingen and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sor-
bonne) and at the College de France.4
Eventually Professor Koyre became "Directeur d'Etudes" of the fifth
section of the 1cole Pratique des Hautes 1tudes and a " staff member" of
the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). He was a "Visiting Pro-
fessor " at the universities of Cairo, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and Wisconsin,
and lectured at many universities in Europe and in America (including
Harvard, Yale, Buffalo, and Brandeis). Those who heard him lecture and
reply to the questions of his audience were at once aware of his massive
erudition, his ability to cite texts from memory in the original ancient and
modem languages, his vast knowledge of scientific and philosophic ideas
from all periods, his ability to see antecedents and consequents of theories.
A particular gift was the ability to call at will upon this vast store of informa-
tion and to use it to show how a given topic was related at once to the main
streams of ideas and to the little-known directions of thought. He taught
us that to understand giants like Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton,
we must also study carefully their lesser contemporaries: Hooke, Barrow,
Roberval, Wallis, Hobbes, Seth Ward, Cavalieri, Riccioli, Gassendi, and
even Bonamico.
Well versed in the history of philosophy, Koyre was able to show
the central concepts of philosophy at any given time may be a det
element of the nature of the scientific thought of that age, and v
Some examples are the effect of the geometrization of space in th
sance, the concept of an infinite universe, matter and spirit. To
fessor Koyre's method in action, we may turn to his own statem
cerning his Studes Galileennes:
J'ai essaye d'analyser, dans ce dernier ouvrage, la revolution scient
xvIIe si&cle, a la fois source et resultat d'une profonde transformati
site de Paris, 1923 (No 4 de la bibliographie).
4 Koyr6 described his early career as follows:
Ne le 29 aofit 1892 a Taganrog (Russie).-
-Docteur As lettres, 1929 (Nos 10 et 11 de la
Etudes secondaires aux lycees de Tiflis et de
bibliographie).
Rostoff-sur-Don. - Etudes de mathematiques Charge de conferences a 1'Ecole Pratique
et de philosophie aux Universites de Goet-
des Hautes Etudes (Ve section) : 1922-1930. -
tingue et de Paris, a l'Ecole Pratique des
Charge de cours a 1'Institut d'Etudes Slaves :
Hautes-Etudes et au College de France: 1922-1925. -Suppleant de M. E. Gilson a
1908-1914. la Facult6 des Lettres : nov.-dec. 1928 et
Guerre 1914-1918: Engage volontaire pournov.-d6c. 1929. - Maitre de conferences a la
la duree de la guerre. Facult6 des Lettres de Montpellier : ler
Etudes a 1'Universite de Paris, a l'Ecole octobre 1930 -31 decembre 1931. -Direc-
Pratique des Hautes-Etudes, au College de teur d'Etudes a la Ve section de 1'Ecole Prati-
France : 1919-1922. que des Hautes Etudes (pour l'Histoire des
Diplome d'etudes superieures de philos- idees philosophiques et religieuses dans
ophie, 1913.--Dipl6me de l'Ecole Pratique 1'Europe moderne) depuis le ler janvier 1932.
des Hautes Etudes, Ve Section, 1922 (No 3 This is quoted from a privately printed
de la bibliographie). - Docteur de 1'Univer- pamphlet of "Titres et travaux " (1951).

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160 I. BERNARD COHEN

uelle qui a bouleverse non seulement le contenu, mais les

notre pensde: la substitution d'un univers infini et homog
et hierarchiquement ordonnd de la pensee antique et m
et ndcessite la refonte des principes premiers de la raison
scientifique, la refonte aussi de notions fondamentales, cel
de l'espace, du savoir et de l'etre. C'est pourquoi la deco
simples, telle la loi de la chute des corps, a coutd a de tre
si longs efforts qui n'ont pas toujours etd couronnes d
notion d'inertie, aussi manifestement absurde pour l'antiq
age qu'elle nous parait plausible, voire evidente, aujour
ddgagde dans toute sa rigueur meme par la pensde d'un G
que par Descartes.

Professor Koyre stated his creed as follows:

L'influence de la pensde scientifique et de la vision du mo

mine n'est pas seulement pr6sente dans les systeme - tels
et Leibniz - ... mais aussi dans les doctrines - telles les doc
- apparemment dtrangeres a toute preoccupation de ce
lorsqu'elle se formule en syst~me, implique une image, ou
ception du monde et se situe par rapport a elle: la mystiq
[donc] rigoureusement incomprehensible sans referenc
mologie crde par Copernic.5

In these words we can see how his philosophical stud

work in scientific thought. In short, " L'evolution de la
... ne formait pas . une serie independante, mais etait, a
etroitement liee a celle des idees transscientifiques, phi
physiques, religieuses."

The studies on which Alexandre Koyre was engaged

twenty years deal with the central problems of the Scien
the seventeenth century, linked to names such as Galileo
Hooke, Borelli, Newton. He once described his endeavor as a look at the
transition of le monde de l'a peu pres to l'univers de la precision. T
transition he found characterized by the elaboration of the concept (an
the ancillary techniques) of exact measurement, the creation of scientif
instruments which made possible the transition from qualitative experien
to the quantitative experiment of classical modern science, and, finally, t
beginnings of the infinitesimal calculus.
The historical method of Alexandre Koyre had as one of its distinguishi
features a sympathetic approach to the subject under discussion. While
course he recognized orders of genius and of importance, he avoided th
posture of the schoolmaster (so prevalent among historians of science), w
gives grades to the scientists of the past: assigning to this one a " pass " a
5 This and the following French extracts are
quoted from Koyre's statement of "Orienta- in the pamphlet mentioned in footnote 4
tion des recherches et projets d'enseignement" supra.

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 ALEXANDRE KOYRI (1892-1964) 161

to that one a "fail" and occasionally finding a subject worthy of an

" honor " grade. Professor Koyr6 always attempted to find what the basis
might possibly be of the particular argument, theory, or set of concepts
which he encountered. He rejected the kind of history in which a modern
scholar remarks that this was correct and that was wrong judging each
statement, not in the context of the time in which it was composed, but
rather grading it from the viewpoint of our own presently accepted theories
and collections of facts. Such historians, according to Koyre, were not
engaged in conceptual analysis; they were not attempting to understand
what the men of science of the past were thinking and even accomplishing
with the mathematical, theoretical, and experimental tools then available.
Professor Koyre was interested - first and foremost - to find out the degree
to which men of science of the past may have been " right " in the terms of
their own times, not ours.
In his method of procedure Koyre did not confine himself to what
may be correct or faulty by the standards of today. He was more con-
cerned to discover whether the statements in question did or did not
follow from either the explicit or implicit assumptions of the author or the
general presuppositions of the age in which that author lived. In many
cases it was necessary to study hard and deep to discover such preconceptions.
Readers of Koyre's writing are familiar with his oft-repeated comment after
such an analysis: And he was right! Such conceptual analysis applied to the
secondary men of the seventeenth century revealed the biases and presup-
positions that had up till then remained hidden behind the otherwise in-
scrutable pages of a Newton or even a Descartes.
This method was thus premised on the thesis: " I1 est essentiel de replacer
les ceuvres etudiees dans leur milieu intellectuel et spirituel, de les inter-
preter en fonction des habitudes mentales, des preferences et des aversions
de leurs auteurs." Koyre warned us constantly:

R6sister a la tentation, a laquelle succombent trop d'histoiriens des sciences,

de rendre plus accessible la pensee souvent obscure, malhabile et meme con-
fuse des anciens, en la traduisant en un langage moderne qui la clarifie mais
en meme temps la deforme: rien, au contraire, n'est plus instructif que
l'etude des demonstrations d'un meme th6oreme donn6es par Archimede et
Cavalieri, Roberval et Barrow.

In the studies of Newton's Principia which occupied the last years of his
life, Alexandre Koyre constantly sought illumination and clarification in
Mme du Chatellet's French translation, and to some degree in Andrew
Motte's contemporaneous English version. Motte and Mme du Chatellet
preserved some of Newton's original ambiguity, where we today would
restrict him to the narrow confines of our own current technical expressions.
Professor Koyr6 was himself a skillful translator - and he rendered into
French great sections of the writings of Galileo and Kepler, as well as whole
books by St. Anselm, Spinoza, and Copernicus - yet he was always sensitive
to the needs of comprehending a text in its own terms and he liked to quote

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162 I. BERNARD COHEN

the old saying, traduttore-traditore, which once he even

an article dealing with errors in translation a propos Cop
* * *

In 1957, I had the si

Koyre in the prepara
ancillary studies as
begun to discuss the
International Congr
Milan in 1956. Ther
1962, we met for pe
in Princeton or Cam
summer; in Cambri
we took following t
responsibility for th
(" variorum ") text,
printed editions, the
first and of the sec
say, every stage of t
by him and we spen
to make the results
Professor Koyre m
Borelli, necessary for
of Cavalieri, whose method of " indivisibles" forms the basis of Newton's
own " method of first and last ratios "; and kindred topics. We were for-
tunate enough to be able to obtain photocopies of many of Newton's manu-
scripts,6 and we analyzed these in our monthly meetings, attempting to find
what light they might throw on the source and development of Newton's
ideas, and to discover what relation they might bear to the variae lectiones
of the critical edition of the Principia we were preparing. One after another,
brilliant Newtonian studies were produced by Professor Koyre, and th
series is now united in book form.7 In one of these essays, based on a hitherto
unpublished lecture given at Harvard, he examined certain keys to the
dependence of Newton's science on Descartes' philosophy. In particular, he
called attention to Newton's use of the word status in his statement of the
prima lex motus, all bodies conserving their status (either a status of
or a status of motion in a straight line at constant speed) unless acted
by an external force. It is owing to this very concept of status that N
was able to conceive a dynamic equivalence of motion - at least, unif
rectilinear motion - and rest. Motion and rest are quite different - bo
an absolute sense and in terms of a given inertial frame of reference
6 In this work we were generously supported 7 Newtonian Studies (Cambridge: Ha
by an initial grant from the American Philo- Univ. Press, 1965; London: Chapman &
sophical Society, augmented by a considerable 1965). A volume of essays on the scien
grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Subse-
quently the research in connection with the the seventeenth century is scheduled to
Principia was generously supported by the Na- shortly under the title Metaphysics and
tional Science Foundation. urement in Seventeenth-Century Science.

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 ALEXANDRE KOYRE (1892-1964) 163

they are nevertheless equivalent in terms of status. Here is to be found a

most significant aspect of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Where did Newton get it? From Descartes! In the latter's Principia,
inertial physics appears in the prima lex naturae, where uniform rectilinear
motion is said to be a status. The manuscript notes made by Newton as a
student showed that he had been reading Descartes' Principia philosophiae,
and thus confirmed Koyre's conclusion, based on a comparison of Newton's
and Descartes' texts, on the special use of a particular word and its conse-
quent philosophical implications. Step by step there was revealed the source
of the statement by Newton in which he declares the absolute independence
of inertial physics from the Aristotelian dictum that motion is a process and
insists that motion can be a status equivalent to rest.8
In addition to the essays collected in the volume mentioned above, there
were other results of Koyre's studies of Newton. Together he and I com-
pleted a short paper and a lengthy monograph on aspects of the controversy
between Leibniz and Newton.9 One of the points made in these articles,
due entirely to Koyre, may show how deep was his erudition. In the famous
Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, Clarke writes of atoms as " indiscerpible,"
a term which in both the recent French and English editions is changed to
" indiscernible," as if the " p " in " indiscerpible " were a misprint. But
Professor Koyre at once recognized that, far from being a slip, the "p"
was intended; he remembered that the word " indiscerpible " was invented
and used by Henry More, who was known to have exerted a strong influence
on Newton's thought. How happy I was to find confirmation of Professor
Koyre's idea: in a student's notebook young Newton had in fact copied
out an extract from Henry More on atoms, and it contains the very word in
question, " indiscerpible." 10
The critical text of Newton's Principia was completed, save for typing
and the final checking and revision, about two and one half years ago.1
On my last visit with Koyre in Paris in June of 1963, we spent a week or so
together talking about Newton. We discussed certain aspects of a long, joint
monograph we had planned, of which I had written out a first draft, on an
aspect of Newton's revision of the Principia in the 1690's, within about the

8 As a sequel, my awareness sharpened by "' Quantum in se est': Newton's concept of

Koyre's brilliant analysis, I later found further
evidence to support his conclusions. On re-
reading the statements of Newton and Des-
cartes, my attention focused on a curious
phrase, quantum in se est, used by both of
them, which has puzzled the translators of
Newton's Principia. This phrase, quantum in
se est, which I found that Newton had learned
from Descartes, proves not to be original with
Descartes: he got it from Lucretius' famous
poem De rerum natura. I finally clarified the
sense of quantum in se est by a study of the
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century commen-
tators on Lucretius--in the manner which I
had learned from Koyre. See I. B. Cohen,
inertia in relation to Descartes and Lucretius,"
Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 1964,
19:131-155.
9 A. Koyre, I. B. Cohen, "The Case of the
Missing Tanquam: Leibniz, Newton & Clarke,"
Isis, 1961, 52:555-566; "Newton & the Leibniz-
Clarke Correspondence, with Notes on Newton,
Conti, & Des Maizeaux," Archives Interna-
tionales d'Histoire des Sciences, 1962, 15:63-126.
10 See " Newton & the Leibniz-Clarke Corre-
spondence," p. 126.
11 The edition is to be published jointly
Harvard University Press and Cambridge U
versity Press.

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164 I. BERNARD COHEN

first five years after the original publication. In particul

explore further the stages of transition in Book 3 from
Regulae philosophandi; I also presented a plan for yet anot
study: on " Miracles and Occult Qualities." 12 Chiefly, ho
over an outline for the commentary volume to accompany
Principia. Professor Koyre had been very seriously ill f
and yet on these days we discussed Newton deeply and pa
had been doing for at least seven years. During the next
pleted the revision and expansion of the essays comprisin
his Newtonian Studies, checked my translations of the
written in French, and studied my suggested alterations -
he accepted. Thus this volume represents his final wishes,
mature scholarship exactly as he wanted them to be presen
alone who have the assignment of writing the commentary
which it had been our hope to have written together.

Having said so much, I must nevertheless add that no por

and revered maitre would be complete if it did not at lea
great personal charm, his modesty, his dignity in his calling,
to other scholars and to students. His home in Paris became a Mecca to
which all historians of science made a pilgrimage. His influe
living scholars is widespread, as shown by the number and varie
tributors from Europe and America who honored his seventieth
by contributing to the Melanges A lexandre Koyre. In America, h
disciples, all of whom eventually became his friends.
Reviewing Koyre's scholarly contributions, I should add that
quality which I have not mentioned was that marvelous kind of
which let him know which problems would be fruitful. He was o
most persistent people I have ever known, sticking to a problem to t
end, when most ordinary scholars would have long since given u
he was in his heart of hearts a Platonist: he heartily disliked pos
all its forms and manifestations. Thus he delighted in showing
of human invention, rather than mere generalizing from experie
source of science at its greatest. One of his articles even happil
title "L'experience imaginaire et son abus." He once summe
scholarly " credo " in these words:
Quant a moi je ne crois pas a l'interpr6tation positive de la science
a celle de Newton. L'histoire contient une leSon bien differente: l
pur - et meme la " philosophie experimentale "- ne conduisent nu
et ce n'est pas en renongant au but apparement inaccessible et inu
connaissance du rdel, mais au contraire en le poursuivant avec har
la science progresse sur la voie sans fin qui la conduit a la verite.
quence, l'histoire de cette progression de la science moderne de
consacree a son aspect theorique au moins autant qu'a son aspe
12 Alas, Koyrd did not live to add his contribution to either of these planned stu

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 ALEXANDRE KOYRt (1892-1964) 165

mental.... Les grandes r6volutions scientifiques du xxe siecle - autant que

celles du xvIIe ou du xixe - bien que fondees naturellement sur la d6couverte
des faits nouveaux - ou sur l'impossibilit6 de les verifier - sont fondamentale-
ment des revolutions theoriques dont le resultat ne fut pas de mieux relier
entre elles les " donnees de l'experience " mais d'acquerir une nouvelle con-
ception de la realit6 profonde qui sous-tend ces " donnees." 13

Philosopher, historian, combining both in his role of analyst and inter-

preter of the growth and transformation of scientific concepts, Alexandre
Koyre was one of the leading citizens of the Republic of Letters in our time.

13 A. Koyre, "Les origines de la science moderne," Diogene, 1956, 16:14-42, p. 31.

COMMEMORATION

By Marshall Clagett *

The succeeding remarks constitute hardly more tha

fessor Cohen's fine account of the content and influence of the work of our
late and beloved friend, Alexandre Koyre. Cohen has rightfully si
out his extraordinary influence on a generation of American scholars.
influence came at a time when the history of science was firmly establish
itself as an independent discipline in the American academic commun
Hence, the influence was felt not only on some of us who were alrea
committed to the history of science, but on our students as well, who
urged to take Koyre's studies as models. While I am sure that what I
about the influence of Alexandre Koyre on my own work is equally
for many other scholars, I shall here confine myself to an attempt to desc
that personal influence. It was, above all, in the careful analysis of scie
concepts in their philosophical context that Professor Koyre exerted
most important influence. My own admiration and friendship for K
began with the excitement I felt at first reading his Ltudes Galileenn
a time when I was attempting to find a satisfactory way to examine medie
mechanics and to contrast it with that of the Galilean period. His su
reading of Galileo offered an excellent point of departure for my own wo
I was equally impressed by his beautiful paper, " Le Vide et l'espace i
au XIve siecle," and particularly by the doubt it cast on the easy gener
tions of Pierre Duhem. Above all, it gave an example of the caution o
must exercise in examining the full context of concepts.
Following upon a first brief meeting between us in Paris in 1951 w
we discussed at length the significance of medieval statics, Koyre cam
* Institute for Advanced Study.
1 Archives d'Histoire doctrinale et litteraire du moyen age, 1949, 17.

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166 MARSHALL CLAGETT

the University of Wisconsin in 1953 and joined our dep

Professor in the History of Science, offering a lecture co
century science and a seminar in the mechanics of that
three of my own doctoral students were to benefit by
careful historical and philosophical techniques: Profes
Indiana University; John Murdoch, Harvard University
Southern Methodist University. The most important e
niques as we saw them in operation in 1953 were easy
(but, alas, difficult to emulate without Koyre's own er
(1) a remarkable instinct for seeing the fruitful prob
buried in a complex philosophical and scientific matrix
of the texts to see in what way a given author agreed
predecessors and contemporaries in enunciating these
truly fine historical perspective in which arguments w
and spirit in which they were written and at the sam
their possible and actual impact on later work.
Two years later, in 1955, Alexandre Koyre began his
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His annual
provided further opportunity for his many American
him regularly, and it was at his instigation that a num
interested in the history of science applied for membe
bership in 1958-1959 remains, because of our associat
stimulating and certainly one of the most pleasant ye
during that year that Koyre took time away from his ow
proofs of my Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages.2 I
hand how dependent on his friendship and scholarship
of science had become, for example, how his good
Charles Gillispie, and Henry Guerlac (and others) sough
for advice and conversation or to work on some project
And certainly his presence at the Institute won many
of the Institute) for our discipline. I hardly need say
Institute and its Rosenwald Collection in the histor
place to work, surrounded as he was by the books of h
standing associates such as Robert Oppenheimer, H
Erwin Panofsky. Hence, it was particularly regretted
leagues that he was unable to spend his seventy-first y
Institute; for it was after his decision not to come that h
attack, and, in spite of some measure of recovery, he
to America prior to his death in the spring of 1964.
generosity are as keenly missed on this side of the At
his home abroad. His was a most fruitful life, and if t
has achieved any lasting maturity as a discipline, it ow
some measure to Alexandre Koyre.
2 Madison: Univ. Wisconsin Press, 1959.

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