ABSTRACT
This chapter explicates the notion of the Spatial Reformation, holding that European thought only completed its reception of ancient geometric thought (including especially all the books of Euclid’s Elements) in the period after 1350. It adds that the Euclidean notion of space was inherently corrosive of both Aristotelian and Platonist philosophical principles, which made the book that propounded them, Euclid’s Elements, a much more powerful philosophical force than most commentators have imagined. Among other thinkers considered are John Donne (1572–1631), Euclid of Alexandria (fl. 300 BC), Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Isaac Newton (1643–1727), Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), Matteo de’ Pasti (1420–1467), and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1803).
