We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from ENTRIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
Descartes was among the first modern scientists to make the search for laws of nature central to his scientific work, and apparently the first philosopher to think deeply about the logical and metaphysical status of these laws, developing a theory that provides a significant alternative to the Humean approach that long dominated Anglophone thinking on this topic (Milton 1998, 686).
Writing to Mersenne in November 1629, Descartes announces an ambitious project: he has resolved to explain, not just one phenomenon, but “all the phenomena of nature, that is, the whole of physics” (AT I 70, CSMK 7). In The World, begun early in the 1630s, but never finished, we see the beginnings of that project. Descartes invites us to imagine a new world, somewhere in “the imaginary spaces,” where God created so much matter that in whatever direction our imagination extends, it finds no empty place (AT XI 31–32, CSM I 90). In this matter are three kinds of elementary particles, distinguished only by size, shape, and motion (AT XI 34, CSM I 94) (see element). The phenomenal properties of macroscopic objects (heat, light, hardness, fluidity, etc.) are to be explained by the properties of their constituent particles, and especially by motion, according to the laws of nature.
This early mechanist program posits three fundamental laws:
1.Unless an encounter with other bodies causes a change, each part of matter continues in the same state: size, shape, and position (if at rest), or motion (if in motion).
2.When one body collides with another, it cannot give it any motion unless it loses as much as the other body gains; if it takes motion from the other body, it must gain as much motion as it takes away.
3.If a body is in motion, even if it usually moves in a curved line, each of its parts will tend to move in a straight line, departing from that path only as constrained by other bodies. (“Usually” is odd. Since Descartes rejects any vacuum, he holds that all actual motion must be in a closed curve.)(AT XI 36–48, CSM I 92–98)
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.
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.
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.
