Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 38 No. 1, 2018.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi38102
Idealizing Space in Newton’s Rational Mechanics
Goran Rujević
orcid.org/0000-0001-5047-8094
; Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Filozofski fakultet, Dr Zorana Đinđića 2, RS–21000 Novi Sad
Abstract
Axiomatic method of exposition in Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica at first seems to go against his experimental approach. However, the geometric method of this work is necessary for forming a scientific system of the world, a world that is inherently mathematical in its full framework. This mathematical character is neither Platonist nor approximative but rather founded on the possibility of idealizing geometric figures and proportions from physical motion. Following the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and Isaac Barrow, Newton had posited a kind of rational mechanics with the goal of bridging the gnoseological gap between absolute and relative space (and time), thereby enabling a universal natural philosophy, a precursor to the science of physics. Such rational mechanics implies the possibility of conducting perfectly precise constructions and measurements.
Keywords
absolute space; relative space; geometry; motion; Isaac Newton; rational mechanics
Hrčak ID:
204786
URI
Publication date:
2.4.2018.
Visits: 2.225 *