Details

Subject(s)

• Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von 1646-1716 [Browse]
• Dynamics—Early works to 1800 [Browse]

Series

• Studies in history and philosophy of science (Dordrecht, Netherlands) ; v. 46. [More in this series]
• Studies in history and philosophy of science ; volume 46

Summary note

This book presents a systematic reconstruction of Leibniz's dynamics project (c. 1676-1700) that contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the concepts of physical causality in Leibniz's work and 17th century physics. It argues that Leibniz's theory of forces privileges the causal relationship between structural organization and physical phenomena instead of body-to-body mechanical causation. The mature conception of Leibnizian force is not the power of one body to cause motion in another, but a kind of structural causation related to the configuration of integral systems of bodies in physical evolution. By treating the immanent philosophy of Leibniz's dynamics, this book makes explicit the systematic aims and inherent limits of Leibniz's physical project, in addition to providing an alternative vision of the scientific understanding of the physical world in the late 17th and early 18th century.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. What is structural causation?
• Chapter 3. The equivalence of hypotheses and dynamical causation
• Chapter 4. Continuity and causation in the dynamics
• Chapter 5. The changing concept of the equipollence of cause and effect
• Chapter 6. Vis viva in a monadic world.

Show 3 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9783319590530
• 3319590537

OCLC

1000520101

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