ISBN:
9789400721265
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (XXV, 352p. 20 illus, digital)
Series Statement:
Archimedes, New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology 29
Series Statement:
SpringerLink
Series Statement:
Bücher
Parallel Title:
Buchausg. u.d.T. Ducheyne, Steffen The main business of natural philosophy
Keywords:
Science Philosophy
;
History
;
Humanities / Arts / Design
;
Science Philosophy
;
History
;
Newton, Isaac,
;
Sir, 1642-1727
;
Science
;
Methodology
;
Newton, Isaac 1643-1727
;
Wissenschaft
;
Methodologie
;
Newton, Isaac 1643-1727
;
Wissenschaft
;
Methodologie
Abstract:
In this monograph, a historically detailed and philosophical-systematic study will be undertaken of Newton's scientific methodology. It will be shown that the hypothesis that Newton was a bad or confused methodologist is beset with many difficulties and that Newton was not a simplistic inductivist nor did he believe that causes can be derived unconditionally from phenomena. Special attention will be given to Newton's Principia-style methodology. With respect to Newton's Principia-style methodology, it will be shown that Newton carefully distinguished between the (physico- )mathematical treatment of force and the physical treatment of force and that the former should always precede the latter in order to uncover the forces present in rerum natura more safely. In the (physico- )mathematical treatment of force, Newton explicated the physico-mathematical conditions under which, given the laws of motion, certain motions would occur exactly or quam proxime. Of course, Newton clearly focused on those motions which would be relevant in the study of the systema mundi, i.e. Keplerian motions. It will be shown that the models of Book I are not purely mathematical, but physico-mathematical instead: the idealized motions and forces of the models of Book I are iso-nomological to real-world bodies and forces and they are analyzable by the same technical concepts, i.e. Definitions I-VIII. Given these features, Newton could bridge the gap between mathematics and physics: the physico-mathematical conditions, which are structurally similar to what would become their referents in the context of Book III, are predicated under the same laws that hold in the empirical world and, given the Definitions, one could relate certain technical terms to their quasi-physical measures
Abstract:
In this monograph, Steffen Ducheyne provides a historically detailed and systematically rich explication of Newton's methodology. Throughout the pages of this book, it will be shown that Newton developed a complex natural-philosophical methodology which encompasses procedures to minimize inductive risk during the process of theory formation and which, thereby, surpasses a standard hypothetico-deductive methodological setting. Accordingly, it will be highlighted that the so-called 'Newtonian Revolution' was not restricted to the empirical and theoretical dimensions of science, but applied equal
Description / Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Contents; List of Figures; Notes to the Reader; Part I Newton's Causal Methodology; 1 Newton and Causes: Something Borrowed and Something New; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Stewart's Objection: The Logical Problem of Analysis and Synthesis; 1.3 Newton's Early Aristotelian Training; 1.4 Textbooks on Logic and Method; 1.5 Newton on Natural-Philosophical Analysis and Synthesis; 1.6 Centripetal Forces as Causes; 1.7 Newton on Action at a Distance; 1.8 Conclusion; 1.9 Coda: Did Newton Actually Mean "Explanations"?
Description / Table of Contents:
1.9 Appendix: Transcription of CUL Add. Ms. 3968, f. 109r-v [Early 1710s]Part II Newton's Methodology: "The Best Way of Arguing in Natural Philosophy"; 2 Uncovering the Methodology of the Principia (I): The Phase of Model Construction; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Newton's Rejection of the Method of Hypothesis; 2.3 The Strong Version of I. Bernard Cohen's "Newtonian Style" and Its Predicament; 2.4 The Constituents of Newton's Models in Book I; 2.4.1 Newton's Definitions; 2.4.2 Newton's Laws of Motion; 2.4.3 The Mathematical Machinery of the Principia
Description / Table of Contents:
2.4.4 The Constituents of the Models in Books I--II2.5 Crucial Sorts of Propositions of Book I; 2.5.1 Inferring Inverse-Square Centripetal Forces from Exact or Quam Proxime Keplerian Motion; 2.5.2 The Harmonic Rule; 2.5.3 Many-Body Systems; 2.5.4 The Attractive Forces of Spherical Bodies; 2.6 Newton's Methodology Part I: Book I as an "Autonomous Enterprise"; 3 Uncovering the Methodology of the Principia (II): The Phase of Model Application, Theory Formation and Theory Application; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 The Development and Meaning of Newton's Regulae Philosophandi
Description / Table of Contents:
3.3 Justifying the Absence of a Resisting Medium3.4 The Arguments for Universal Gravitation: The Analysis; 3.4.1 Propositions I--II: The Inference of Inverse-Square Centripetal Forces Acting on the Primary and Secondary Planets; 3.4.2 Propositions III0IV: The Inference of an Inverse-Square Centripetal Force Acting on the Moon; 3.4.3 Proposition V: From Centripetal Force to ''Gravity''; 3.4.4 Proposition VI: Weight-Mass Proportionality; 3.4.5 Proposition VII--VIII: Universal Gravitation; 3.5 The Argument for Universal Gravitation: The Synthesis or the Phase of Theory Application
Description / Table of Contents:
3.6 An Outline of Newton's Methodology in Book III of the PrincipiaAppendix 1: Relevant Additions and Changes Occurring in the Second Edition of the Principia (1713); Appendix 2: Relevant Additions and Changes Occurring in the Third Edition of the Principia (1726); 4 Facing the Limits of Deductions from Phenomena: Newton's Quest for a Mathematical-Demonstrative Optics; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The Opticks as an Incomplete Treatise; 4.3 The Corporality of Light as a Hypothesis; 4.4 Newton's Argument for the Heterogeneity of White Light; 4.5 Scrutinizing Newton's Two Conclusions
Description / Table of Contents:
4.6 Early Newton's Demonstrative Rhetoric
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
DOI:
10.1007/978-94-007-2126-5
URL:
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