ISBN:
9789400743458
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (XVIII, 338 p. 9 illus, digital)
Series Statement:
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science 282
Series Statement:
SpringerLink
Series Statement:
Bücher
Parallel Title:
Buchausg. u.d.T. The mechanization of natural philosophy
Keywords:
Philosophy (General)
;
Biology Philosophy
;
Philosophy of nature
;
Science Philosophy
;
Philosophy
;
Philosophy (General)
;
Biology Philosophy
;
Philosophy of nature
;
Science Philosophy
;
Science
;
Philosophy
;
History
;
16th century
;
Science
;
Philosophy
;
History
;
17th century
;
Aufsatzsammlung
;
Naturphilosophie
;
Mechanismus
;
Ideengeschichte 1550-1720
Abstract:
The Mechanisation of Natural Philosophy is devoted to various aspects of the transformation of natural philosophy during the 16th and 17th centuries that is usually described as mechanical philosophy .Drawing the border between the old Aristotelianism and the « new » mechanical philosophy faces historians with a delicate task, if not an impossible mission. There were many natural philosophers who actually crossed the border between the two worlds, and, inside each of these worlds, there was a vast spectrum of doctrines, arguments and intellectual practices. The expression mechanical philosophy is burdened with ambiguities. It may refer to at least three different enterprises: a description of nature in mathematical terms; the comparison of natural phenomena to existing or imaginary machines; the use in natural philosophy of mechanical analogies, i.e. analogies conceived in terms of matter and motion alone.However mechanical philosophy is defined, its ambition was greater than its real successes. There were few mathematisations of phenomena. The machines of mechanical philosophers were not only imaginary, but had little to do with the machines of mecanicians. In most of the natural sciences, analogies in terms of matter and motion alone failed to provide satisfactory accounts of phenomena.By the same authors: Mechanics and Natural Philosophy before the Scientific Revolution (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 254).
Description / Table of Contents:
The Mechanization of Natural Philosophy; Preface; Contents; Contributors; Introduction; Part I: The Construction of Historical Categories; Chapter 1: Remarks on the Pre-history of the Mechanical Philosophy; 1.1 What Was the Mechanical Philosophy?; 1.2 The Mechanical Philosophy Before Boyle; 1.3 Bacon; 1.4 Galileo; 1.5 Mersenne; 1.6 Descartes/Gassendi/Hobbes: Mechanical Philosophers?; 1.7 Novatores, Latitudinarians, and the Construction of the Mechanical Philosophy; 1.8 A Broader Conception of Mechanism?; Chapter 2: How Bacon Became Baconian
Description / Table of Contents:
2.1 The Meaning of Mechanical Operation in Bacon's Oeuvre2.2 Mechanical and Vital Readings of Bacon's Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century England; 2.3 Conclusion; Chapter 3: An Empire Divided: French Natural Philosophy (1670-1690); 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 A Debate on Natural Philosophy; 3.3 On the Side of the New Philosophers; 3.3.1 The Methodology of Ontology: Beings Should Not Be Multiplied Without Necessity; 3.3.2 The Way of Physics: Physics Should Explain Phenomena, Namely, Give Efficient Causes; 3.3.3 Ontological Categories: The Bipartition Between Body and Soul Should Be Respected
Description / Table of Contents:
3.3.4 The Social Twist3.4 On the Side of the Old Philosophers; 3.4.1 The Methodology of Ontology: The Multiplication of Corpuscles and the Missing Metaphysical Supplement; 3.4.2 The Way of Physics: One Should Not Indulge in Hypotheses, Ignore Experiments and Use Empty Words; 3.4.3 The Ontological Categories and the Controversy Over Animal Souls; 3.4.4 Another Social Twist; 3.5 Conclusions; Part II: Matter, Motion, Physics and Mathematics; Chapter 4: Matter and Form in Sixteenth-Century Spain: Some Case Studies; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The Corpuscular Theories of the Physician d'Olesa
Description / Table of Contents:
4.2.1 Elements, Minima and Qualities4.2.2 The Problem of Mixture; 4.2.3 A Corpuscular Theory of Light and Vision; 4.3 The Absence of a Tradition; 4.3.1 The Hypothesis of Menéndez Pelayo; 4.3.2 The Salamacan Physician Gomez Pereira; 4.3.3 The Salamacan Physician Francisco Valles; 4.4 Conclusion; Chapter 5: The Composition of Space, Time and Matter According to Isaac Newton and John Keill; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter in Early Modern Natural Philosophy; 5.3 The Evolution of Newton's Views on the Composition of Space, Time and Matter
Description / Table of Contents:
5.4 The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter According to John Keill5.5 Conclusion; Chapter 6: Beeckman, Descartes and Physico-Mathematics; 6.1 Beeckman; 6.1.1 Persistence of Motion; 6.1.2 Persistence of the Form of a Motion; 6.1.3 Conservation in the Exchange of Motion; 6.1.4 Isoperimetric Figures; 6.2 Descartes; 6.2.1 Persistence of Motion; 6.2.2 Communication of Motion; 6.2.3 Persistence and Direction; 6.3 Physico-Mathematics; Chapter 7: Between Mathematics and Experimental Philosophy: Hydrostatics in Scotland About 1700; 7.1 Between Mathematics and Experimental Philosophy
Description / Table of Contents:
7.2 The Mathematical Hydrostatics of Wallis, Gregorie, and Newton
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
DOI:
10.1007/978-94-007-4345-8
URL:
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