Antikrisis: A Short Rejoinder and Defense

...[to] abolish the whole of Philosophy in a certain way, as Mattioli Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1577) was a famous Italian physician and botanist whose works were standard references for centuries. taught; but so that there remains a starting point for doubting—which is to say, for philosophizing—wherever the reasoning of the cause fails us. But in truth, many things lie hidden in the innermost shrines of nature; many things, as Pliny Pliny the Elder, the Roman author of Natural History, who often wrote about the "majesty" and "miracles" of the natural world. says, lie hidden within the Majesty of Nature, which neither any logic nor human intellect can fully grasp. For nature intended these things to be marveled at by men, rather than to be understood by anyone. Therefore, those who are more painstakingly involved in investigating the reasons for individual things remind us of nature’s miracles in everything. It follows from this that it is not enough to simply claim sympathies or antipathies Sympathies and antipathies: In early modern science, these terms explained the "hidden" forces of attraction and repulsion between objects, such as a magnet and iron, or certain medicines and parts of the body.; one must show how they have clearly perceived these relationships between all things—whether indirectly or directly—so that they themselves might perform something miraculous. For man knows only up to a certain point, drawing his principles from the senses; but when we have moved toward the first principles themselves, we are no longer able to know, either because we lack a cause or because of the deficiency of our own intellect. In short: without the senses, there is nothing from which the beginning of a Physical demonstration may be drawn...

Vocabulary: Mattioli, Pliny, Philosophy, Nature, Sympathy, Antipathy, Physics