Johann Christoph Sturm (3 November 1635 – 26 December 1703) was a German

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, professor at

University of Altdorf The University of Altdorf () was a university in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, a small town outside the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. It was founded in 1578 and received university privileges in 1622 and was closed in 1809 by Maximilian I Joseph of Ba ...

and founder of a short-lived scientific academy known as the Collegium Curiosum, based on the model of the Florentine

Accademia del Cimento The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), an early scientific society, was founded in Florence in 1657 by students of Galileo, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani and ceased to exist about a decade later. The foundation of Acade ...

. He edited two volumes of the academy's proceedings under the title ''Collegium Experimentale'' (1676 and 1685). Sturm is the author of ''Physica Electiva'' (1697), a book that criticized

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...

and prompted him to publish a

rebuke In English law and the canon law of the Church of England, a rebuke is a censure on a member of the clergy. (Google Books) It is the least severe censure available against clergy of the Church of England, less severe than a monition. A rebuke can ...

. Sturm's critique was aimed at Leibniz's view that

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

and/or its constituent parts possess some creative force of their own. This criticism was partly

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, in that Sturm claimed Leibniz's view of Nature undermined the sovereignty of the

Christian God God in Christianity is believed to be the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God, which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material u ...

.Gottfried Leibniz, Philosophical Papers and Letters, ed. by Leroy Loemker, (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing, 1969) 499-508. Acta Eruditorum - II astronomia, 1690 – BEIC 13400291

Acta Eruditorum - II astronomia, 1690 – BEIC 13400291

Works

* ''Collegium experimentale'', Nuremberg: Endter, vol. 1 (1676), availabl
here
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here
vol. 2 (1685) availabl
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here
* ''Physica electiva sive hypothetica'', vol 1, Nuremberg: Endter, 1697, availabl
here
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here
vol.2, Altdorf: Kohles, 1698. * A list of works by Sturm with links to online versions is available a
Astronomie in Nürnberg
section "Ausgewählte Werke".

Works

References

Further reading