Isaac Beeckman

Physicist, philosopher and physician. He studied literature and philosophy in Leiden and obtained his doctorate at Caen (1618). In 1627, he was appointed dean of the new Latin school of Dordrecht. He befriended Descartes, and the two enjoyed a long-lasting intellectual companionship.  A follower of Copernicus in cosmology, Beeckman shared Harvey’s position about the circulation of blood, and he developed an atomistic theory of physics. From 1613, his studies of dynamics allowed him to recognize the principle of inertia, and the identical speed of falling objects in a void. He corresponded with Cardano and Mersenne. He was among those, like Stevin and the Snelliuses, who endorsed the doctrines of Brahe and Kepler, Francis Bacon and William Gilbert.