| Summary: | In his 36 volumes Natural History, Buffon is actively seeking for physics that is clearly demarcated from mathematics. To achieve this goal, he devises his own method (which he calls comparison) and his own logic (which he founds on the study of relations or “bearings”, rapports). The results of this relational science are quite special in that they lead to a kind of science that is ordered in tables (in chemistry, economics, etc.). In this article, I study several issues entailed by Buffon’s rejection of the mathematical paradigm and his subsequent adoption of a comparative method. The first issue bears on the theory of knowledge: how can the soul compare? How can it entertain two objects at a time? How does the mind renounce one object to reach another one? The second set of issues is related to logical questions: once the syllogistical method is abandoned, how does this impact on the definition of reasoning and arguments? Finally, the kind of objects or realities that physics deal with is deeply modified – Newtonian attraction being merely one example among many.
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