Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T08:54:26.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Inertia

from ENTRIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2016

Hylarie Kochiras
Affiliation:
École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS)
Lawrence Nolan
Affiliation:
California State University, Long Beach
Get access

Summary

The term “inertia” was first introduced by Kepler (Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, IV.3, 59; IV.2, 54, 55) to designate the opposition to motion that he considered natural to matter. One component of this opposition was a variant of Aristotelian doctrine about “violent motion” that Galileo, Gassendi, Beeckman, and Descartes would reject: persistence of motion requires some external agent, because bodies in motion tend toward rest. Although the Keplerian concept of inertia is sometimes erroneously identified with this first component alone, Kepler's view included a second component claim, a variant of which future physics would retain: bodies resist being put into motion, and their resistance varies with density (Kepler 1858 and 1896, 1:161; 6:174–75, 342; Jammer 1961, 57, 56, 55).

Descartes uses the term “inertia” much as Kepler did. In response to Debeaune's claim that resistance is due to a tardiveté naturelle, Descartes denies that bodies possess any such natural inertia or sluggishness. His own view emerging, he too acknowledges resistance, though correlating it with size rather than density, as his definition of matter in terms of extension alone demands. Diverging from Kepler, he pairs his recognition of resistance with the anti-Aristotelian claim that bodies in motion tend to stay in motion (AT II 466–67).

The term “inertia” eventually labeled a principle based upon Newton's first law of motion, which states, “Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed” (Principia, 417). The concept of an inertial state is inseparable from such concepts as space and motion, and whereas Newton saw rest and uniform motion as distinct if humanly indistinguishable states, they were eventually classified as distinct only in connection with a chosen reference frame.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Kepler, Johannes. 1618–21 (1995). Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, trans. Wallis, C. G.. Amherst: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Kepler, Johannes. 1858 and 1896. Opera omnia, ed. Frisch, C.. Frankfort and Erlangen (vol. 1, 1858; vol. 6, 1896).Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac. 1999. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, trans. Cohen, I. B. and Whitman, A.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac. 1952. Opticks, or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colors of Light. New York: Dover (based on the fourth edition of 1730).Google Scholar
Bertoloni Meli, Domenico. 2000. “Inertia,” in Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Applebaum, W.. New York: Garland, 511–14.Google Scholar
Blackwell, Richard. 1966. “Descartes’ Laws of Motion,” Isis 57: 220–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, I. Bernard. 1964. “‘Quantum in Se Est’: Newton's Concept of Inertia in Relation to Descartes and Lucretius,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 19: 131–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabbey, Alan. 1971. “Force and Inertia in the Seventeenth Century: Descartes and Newton,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 2: 1–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooper, Wallace. 1998. “Inertial Problems in Galileo's Preinertial Framework,” in The Cambridge Companion to Galileo, ed. Machamer, P.. Cambridge University Press, 146–74.Google Scholar
Jammer, Max. 1961. Concepts of Mass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 55–58.Google Scholar
Koyré, Alexandre. 1965. Newtonian Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machamer, Peter. 2009. “Galileo,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Zalta, E. N.. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galileo/.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Inertia
  • Edited by Lawrence Nolan, California State University, Long Beach
  • Book: The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894695.142
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Inertia
  • Edited by Lawrence Nolan, California State University, Long Beach
  • Book: The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894695.142
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Inertia
  • Edited by Lawrence Nolan, California State University, Long Beach
  • Book: The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894695.142
Available formats
×