English mathematical practitioners and the new mechanical philosophy. New emerging epistemologies in the development of Gunnery from Nicolo Tartaglia (1537) to the end of the Seventeenth Century and implications for learning

Résumé En

Tartaglia's Nova Scientia published in 1537 heralded a new approach to the problems of military technology, by adopting neo-platonistic principles to physical phenomena. However, his enquiry was limited by his Aristotelian viewpoint, and his final edition of 1558 offered the idea that nature could be explained by knowledge applied through Platonic philosophy. Tartaglia had accepted that the flight of the missile, hitherto thought to comprise distinct violent and natural phases, had to be of a mixed nature. While application of mathematics in a mechanical paradigm offered a practical validity, readers needed convincing by a formal proof. The problem of the Gunner was finding a reliable way of firing his shot with reasonable accuracy. Neo-platonist philosophy needed a convincing solution to this problem. In his Stratioticos (1579) Thomas Digges' chapter on gunnery proposed an extensive list of parameters for investigation, thus offering an experimental programme for the English Gunners to follow over the next century. Some thoughts on learning in communities and epistemologies are considered