Paris, Descartes, Newton, and the Void

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Paris, Descartes, Newton, and the Void Bradley “Peanut” McCoy AAPT Summer meeting 2020 Doesn’t it always start with Aristotle University of Paris 1277 Condemnations Outline Descartes Over-reaches Newton Non Fingos “In a void, no one could say why a thing once set in motion should stop anywhere; for why should it stop there rather than here? So that a thing will either be at rest or Outline must be moved ad infinitum, unless something more powerful gets in its way. - Aristotle from Physics, Book IV section 8 University of Paris 1277 Condemnations Condemned belief, punishable by excommunication: “That God could not move the heavens with rectilinear motion; and the reason is that a vacuum would remain.” University of Paris 1277 Condemnations Religious objection – There must be no limits on God’s power. “There is no real difference between space and corporeal substance…It is a contradiction to suppose there is such a thing as a vacuum, i.e. that in which there is nothing whatsoever. The impossibility of a vacuum, in the philosophical sense of ‘that in which there is no substance whatsoever’, is clear from the fact that there’s no Outline difference between the extension of a space or internal place and the extension of a body.” - Rene Descartes from Principles of Philosophy (1644) Cartesian dualism – everything is either matter or mind “It’s easy to see from all this that celestial matter is not different from terrestrial matter.” Outline - Rene Descartes from Principles of Philosophy (1644) “In the beginning he [God] created matter, along with its motion and rest; and now, merely by regularly letting things run their course, he preserves the same amount of motion and rest in the material universe as he put there in the beginning.” Outline - Rene Descartes from Principles of Philosophy (1644) Religious objection – Materialist, God not active in the universe “1. Absolute, true, and mathematical time, in and of itself and of its own nature, without reference to anything external, flows uniformly... 2. Absolute space, of its own nature without reference to anything external, always remains homogeneousOutline and immovable… 3. Place is the part of space that a body occupies, and it is, depending on the space, either absolute or relative.” - Isaac Newton from Principia, Scholium (1687) “He [God] endures always and is present everywhere, and by existing always and everywhere he constitutes duration and space. Since each and every particle of space is always, and each and every indivisible moment of duration is everywhere, certainly the makerOutline and lord of all things will not be never or nowhere.” - Isaac Newton from Principia, General Scholium (1687) The concept of a vacuum was debated on philosophical grounds long before it was scientifically observable. Key breakthrough: distinction between matter and Conclusions the space that it occupies Religious response: Catholic church balked at theological claims made by scientists and philosophers, remaining neutral on existence or not of vacuum..

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Democritus C
Democritus c. 460 BC-c. 370 BC (Also known as Democritus of Abdera) Greek philosopher. home to the philosopher Protagoras. There are several indications, both external and internal to his writings, The following entry provides criticism of Democritus’s that Democritus may have held office in Abdera and life and works. For additional information about Democ- that he was a wealthy and respected citizen. It is also ritus, see CMLC, Volume 47. known that he traveled widely in the ancient world, visit- ing not only Athens but Egypt, Persia, the Red Sea, pos- sibly Ethiopia, and even India. Scholars also agree that he INTRODUCTION lived a very long life of between 90 and 109 years. Democritus of Abdera, a contemporary of Socrates, stands Democritus is said to have been a pupil of Leucippus, an out among early Greek philosophers because he offered important figure in the early history of philosophy about both a comprehensive physical account of the universe and whom little is known. Aristotle and others credit Leucippus anaturalisticaccountofhumanhistoryandculture. with devising the theory of atomism, and it is commonly Although none of his works has survived in its entirety, believed that Democritus expanded the theory under his descriptions of his views and many direct quotations from tutelage. However, some scholars have suggested that his writings were preserved by later sources, beginning Leucippus was not an actual person but merely a character with the works of Aristotle and extending to the fifth- in a dialogue written by Democritus that was subsequently century AD Florigelium (Anthology) of Joannes Stobaeus. lost. A similar strategy was employed by the philosopher While Plato ignored Democritus’s work, largely because he Parmenides, who used the character of a goddess to elu- disagreed with his teachings, Aristotle acknowledged De- cidate his views in his didactic poem, On Nature.
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