Interpreting Newton : critical essays / edited by Andrew Janiak and Eric Schliesser.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Janiak, Andrew, editor.

Schliesser, Eric, 1971- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727--Philosophy.

Newton, Isaac.

Philosophy of nature--History--17th century.

Philosophy of nature.

Philosophy of nature--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 439 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This collection of specially commissioned essays by leading scholars presents research on Isaac Newton and his main philosophical interlocutors and critics. The essays analyze Newton's relation to his contemporaries, especially Barrow, Descartes, Leibniz and Locke and discuss the ways in which a broad range of figures, including Hume, Maclaurin, Maupertuis and Kant, reacted to his thought. The wide range of topics discussed includes the laws of nature, the notion of force, the relation of mathematics to nature, Newton's argument for universal gravitation, his attitude toward philosophical empiricism, his use of 'fluxions', his approach toward measurement problems and his concept of absolute motion, together with new interpretations of Newton's matter theory. The volume concludes with an extended essay that analyzes the changes in physics wrought by Newton's Principia. A substantial introduction and bibliography provide essential reference guides.

Contents:

Introduction / Andrew Janiak and Eric Schliesser

Newton's law-constitutive approach to bodies: a response to Descartes / Katherine Brading

Leibniz, Newton and force / Daniel Garber

Locke's qualified embrace of Newton's Principia / Mary Domski

What geometry postulates: Newton and Barrow on the relationship of mathematics to nature / Katherine Dunlop

Cotes' queries: Newton's empiricism and conceptions of matter / Zvi Biener and Chris Smeenk

Newton's scientific method and the universal law of gravitation / Ori Belkind

Newton, Huygens and Euler: empirical support for laws of motion / William Harper

What did Newton mean by 'Absolute Motion'? / Nick Huggett

From velocities to fluxions / Marco Panza

Newton, Locke, and Hume / Graciela de Pierris

Maupertuis on attraction as an inherent property of matter / Lisa Downing

The Newtonian refutation of Spinoza: Newton's challenge and the Socratic problem / Eric Schliesser

Dispositional explanations: Boyle's problem, Newton's solution, Hume's response / Lynn S. Joy

Newton and Kant on absolute space: from theology to transcendental philosophy / Michael Friedman

How Newton's Principia changed physics / George E. Smith.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-15269-6

1-107-21749-0

1-280-88676-5

1-139-16018-4

9786613728074

1-139-15736-1

1-139-15561-X

1-139-16117-2

1-139-15912-7

0-511-99484-2

OCLC:

784883503