Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 95 No. 4, 2025.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.95.4.9
Mechanicism: Atomists, Descartes, and the New Mechanicists
Vito Balorda
orcid.org/0000-0002-7928-7088
; Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Coratia
Abstract
This paper addresses the question: Is there a difference in the use of the concept of mechanism between early and new mechanists? The author argues that early and new mechanists differ in two respects: 1) explanatory aims and 2) ontological assumptions. The term »early mechanists« refers to the atomists and the early modern philosopher Descartes. In contemporary philosophical discussions, »new mechanists« denotes authors who use the concept of mechanism as a causal-explanatory structure in biology (e g, the mechanism of protein synthesis). The difference established between early and new mechanists with respect to 1) is that the former employ mechanisms to explain the functioning of the world as a whole and invoke the analogy between the body and a machine, whereas the latter apply mechanisms to explain biological phenomena The difference pertining to 2) is that early mechanists take atoms and the void as the ontological basis, whilst new mechanists adopt a dual ontology, that is, they consider both entities and activities as necessary components of mechanisms.
Keywords
mechanism; explanation; ontology; causation; atomists; Descartes; New Mechanists; Philosophy of Science
Hrčak ID:
343705
URI
Publication date:
23.1.2026.
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