Johann Sturm

Johann Christoph Sturm (3 November 1635 – 26 December 1703) was a German philosopher, professor at University of Altdorf and founder of a short-lived scientific academy known as the Collegium Curiosum, based on the model of the Florentine Accademia del Cimento.[1] He edited two volumes of the academy's proceedings under the title Collegium Experimentale (1676 and 1685).[1]

Johann Sturm
Born	3 November 1635 Hilpoltstein
Died	26 December 1703 (aged 68) Altdorf bei Nürnberg
Nationality	German
Occupation	Philosopher

Sturm is the author of Physica Electiva (1697), a book that criticized Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and prompted him to publish a rebuke. Sturm's critique was aimed at Leibniz's view that Nature and/or its constituent parts possess some creative force of their own. This criticism was partly theological, in that Sturm claimed Leibniz's view of Nature undermined the sovereignty of the Christian God.[2]

Works

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

References

1. "Academies: Scientific Academies". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1 (14 ed.). 1930. p. 81.
2. Gottfried Leibniz, Philosophical Papers and Letters, ed. by Leroy Loemker, (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing, 1969) 499-508.

Further reading

• Ahnert, Thomas (2002), The Culture of Experimentalism in the Holy Roman Empire: Johann Christoph Sturm (1635-1703) and the Collegium Experimentale .
• Wiesenfeldt, Gerhard, "Speculative and Experimental Philosophy in Universities: Eclecticism", Early Modern Experimental Philosophy, 6 December 2010.

Illustratiom from Excerpta ex literis... published in Acta Eruditorum, 1690