The Methodological Heritage of Newton

The Methodological Heritage of Newton PDF Author: Robert E. Butts
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442651156
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in Newton and his influence. His thought, like that of Aristotle and every other great thinker, underwent development which contemporary scholars are seeking to understand more clearly than did their predecessors, awed as they were by the overwhelming Newtonian achievement. As the titles indicate, the range of essays included in this volume is wide, but most are concerned not so much with explaining Newton’s development as with assessing his contribution to the thought of others. They explore all aspects of the conceptual background—historical, philosophical, and narrowly methodological—and examine questions that developed in the wake of Newton’s science. The papers are varied yet unified in their attention to common themes and show the wealth of philosophical matter to be found in scientific synthesis. Newton left a rich complexity of philosophical problems whose attempted resolution helps our understanding both of method and positive science. His theories are one of the greatest achievements in physics; they are also valuable case studies for those interested in grasping the methodological and broadly philosophical basis of science. Four of the seven essays in this volume were prepared for an international conference held at the University of Western Ontario in April 1967; the three other papers were added by the editors to supplement and unify the collection.

The Methodological Heritage of Newton

The Methodological Heritage of Newton PDF Author: Robert E. Butts
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442651156
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book

Book Description
In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in Newton and his influence. His thought, like that of Aristotle and every other great thinker, underwent development which contemporary scholars are seeking to understand more clearly than did their predecessors, awed as they were by the overwhelming Newtonian achievement. As the titles indicate, the range of essays included in this volume is wide, but most are concerned not so much with explaining Newton’s development as with assessing his contribution to the thought of others. They explore all aspects of the conceptual background—historical, philosophical, and narrowly methodological—and examine questions that developed in the wake of Newton’s science. The papers are varied yet unified in their attention to common themes and show the wealth of philosophical matter to be found in scientific synthesis. Newton left a rich complexity of philosophical problems whose attempted resolution helps our understanding both of method and positive science. His theories are one of the greatest achievements in physics; they are also valuable case studies for those interested in grasping the methodological and broadly philosophical basis of science. Four of the seven essays in this volume were prepared for an international conference held at the University of Western Ontario in April 1967; the three other papers were added by the editors to supplement and unify the collection.

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 3, Early Modern Science

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 3, Early Modern Science PDF Author: David C. Lindberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521572444
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 833

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Book Description
An account of European knowledge of the natural world, c.1500-1700.

Isaac Newton's Scientific Method

Isaac Newton's Scientific Method PDF Author: William L. Harper
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191617903
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Isaac Newton's Scientific Method examines Newton's argument for universal gravity and his application of it to resolve the problem of deciding between geocentric and heliocentric world systems by measuring masses of the sun and planets. William L. Harper suggests that Newton's inferences from phenomena realize an ideal of empirical success that is richer than prediction. Any theory that can achieve this rich sort of empirical success must not only be able to predict the phenomena it purports to explain, but also have those phenomena accurately measure the parameters which explain them. Harper explores the ways in which Newton's method aims to turn theoretical questions into ones which can be answered empirically by measurement from phenomena, and to establish that propositions inferred from phenomena are provisionally accepted as guides to further research. This methodology, guided by its rich ideal of empirical success, supports a conception of scientific progress that does not require construing it as progress toward Laplace's ideal limit of a final theory of everything, and is not threatened by the classic argument against convergent realism. Newton's method endorses the radical theoretical transformation from his theory to Einstein's. Harper argues that it is strikingly realized in the development and application of testing frameworks for relativistic theories of gravity, and very much at work in cosmology today.

Nature and Scientific Method

Nature and Scientific Method PDF Author: Daniel O. Dahlstrom
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813230721
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
The present volume is a collection of systematic and historical studies addressing the terms of Aristotelian inference.

“The main Business of natural Philosophy”

“The main Business of natural Philosophy” PDF Author: Steffen Ducheyne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400721269
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
In this monograph, Steffen Ducheyne provides a historically detailed and systematically rich explication of Newton’s methodology. Throughout the pages of this book, it will be shown that Newton developed a complex natural-philosophical methodology which encompasses procedures to minimize inductive risk during the process of theory formation and which, thereby, surpasses a standard hypothetico-deductive methodological setting. Accordingly, it will be highlighted that the so-called ‘Newtonian Revolution’ was not restricted to the empirical and theoretical dimensions of science, but applied equally to the methodological dimension of science. Furthermore, it will be documented that Newton’s methodology was far from static and that it developed alongside with his scientific work. Attention will be paid not only to the successes of Newton’s innovative methodology, but equally to its tensions and limitations. Based on a thorough study of Newton’s extant manuscripts, this monograph will address and contextualize, inter alia, Newton’s causal realism, his views on action at a distance and space and time, the status of efficient causation in the /Principia/, the different phases of his methodology, his treatment of force and the constituents of the physico-mathematical models in the context of Book I of the /Principia/, the analytic part of the argument for universal gravitation, the meaning and significance of his regulae philosophandi, the methodological differences between his mechanical and optical work, and, finally, the interplay between Newton’s theology and his natural philosophy.

The Rise of Political Economy as a Science

The Rise of Political Economy as a Science PDF Author: Deborah A Redman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262264259
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Reviews the epistemological ideas that inspired the classical economists: the methodological principles of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Newton, Locke, Hume, Stewart, Herschel, and Whewell. The classical age of economics was marked by an intense interest in scientific methodology. It was, moreover, an age when science and philosophy were not yet distinct disciplines, and the educated were polymaths. The classical economists were acutely aware that suitable methods had to be developed before a body of knowledge could be deemed philosophical or scientific. They did not formulate their methodological views in a vacuum, but drew on a rich collection of philosophical ideas. Consequently, issues of methodology were at the heart of political economys rise as a science. The classical era of economics opened under Adam Smith with political economy understood as an integral part of a broader system of social philosophy; by the end, it had emerged via J. S. Mill as a "separate science", albeit one still inextricably tied to the other social sciences and to ethics. The Rise of Political Economy as a Science opens with a review of the epistemological ideas that inspired the classical economists: the methodological principles of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Newton, Locke, Hume, Stewart, Herschel, and Whewell. These principles were influential not just in the development of political economy, but in the rise of social science in general. The author then examines science in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, with a particular emphasis on the all-important concept of induction. Having laid the necessary groundwork, she proceeds to a history and analysis of the methodologies of four economist-philosophers—Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and J. S. Mill—selected for their historical importance as founders of economics and for their common Scottish intellectual lineage. Concluding remarks put classical methodology into a broader historical perspective.

Newton’s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy

Newton’s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy PDF Author: Paul B. Scheurer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400928092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
This volume contains the Proceedings of the International Colloqui um "Newton's Scientific and Philosophical Legacy", that was held at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) from June 9th to 12th 1987 to celebrate the Tercentenary of the publication of Newton's Philo sophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1667). Although 1987 was a busy year for Newton scholars, we were happy that five of most prom inent among them were able to come to Nijmegen and speak on the vari ous aspects of Newton's thought. They are the Professors I. Bernard Cohen (Harvard), Gale Christianson (Indiana State), B.J. Dobbs (Northwestern), Richard H. Popkin (UCLA) and Mordechai Feingold (Boston University). No doubt, recent scholarship has put Newton's genius in a quite different perspective from the one that had come to make up what may be called Newtonian mythology. Although his achievements in the areas of mechanics, mathematics, and optics remain indisputed, Newton's scientific efforts were apparently entirely subordi nate to his religious beliefs. This volume has been divided into four parts, preceded by a Pream ble in which Prof. Christianson offers a vivid portrait of Newton as a per son. The first part deals with the science of Newton as he himself under stood that term. The second part considers the influence of Newton's work on later scientific developments. The third part deals primarily with the question of the methodological influence of Newton, and the last part with his more philosophical legacy. Two editorial remarks are due.

Activity and Sign

Activity and Sign PDF Author: Michael H.G. Hoffmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387242708
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
The advancement of a scientific discipline depends not only on the "big heroes" of a discipline, but also on a community’s ability to reflect on what has been done in the past and what should be done in the future. This volume combines perspectives on both. It celebrates the merits of Michael Otte as one of the most important founding fathers of mathematics education by bringing together all the new and fascinating perspectives created through his career as a bridge builder in the field of interdisciplinary research and cooperation. The perspectives elaborated here are for the greatest part motivated by the impressing variety of Otte’s thoughts; however, the idea is not to look back, but to find out where the research agenda might lead us in the future. This volume provides new sources of knowledge based on Michael Otte’s fundamental insight that understanding the problems of mathematics education – how to teach, how to learn, how to communicate, how to do, and how to represent mathematics – depends on means, mainly philosophical and semiotic, that have to be created first of all, and to be reflected from the perspectives of a multitude of diverse disciplines.

Recreating Newton

Recreating Newton PDF Author: Rebekah Higgitt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317314948
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Examines Isaac Newton's changing legacy during the nineteenth century. This book focuses on 1820-70, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the 'scientist'. It shows how debates about Newton's character stimulated historical scholarship and led to the development of a new expertise in the history of science.

Issac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica"

Issac Newton's Author: Wieslaw A Kaminski
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813201630
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The symposium celebrates the 300th anniversary of the publication of Newton's 'Principia'. Appearing in 1687 after the pioneering work of Copernicus, Galileo, and Descartes, the 'Principia' represents the culmination of the Scientific Revolution.The symposium focuses on Newton's discoveries and their impact on the modern world in the light of recent historical, methodological, as well as scientific studies.The proceedings contain papers devoted to the intellectual context of the 'Principia' (analysis of ancient mechanics and middle-age physics) and to the problems of developing physics and its methods. The influence of post-Newtonian physics on Science will also be considered.In view of the 'revolutionary-evolutionary' controversy concerning the character of the development of science, some authors will undertake the interesting problem of whether physics will ever shake itself free from Newtonian methodology.Distinguishing features are: The Methodologically and ideologically diverse views on the 'Principia' and their influence on modern science and philosophy (from neo-Thomism to neo-Marxism, from science to art); The Reception of Newton's ideas in Central Europe (Poland, Habsburg's Monarchy); and the Intellectual context of the 'Principia' with special emphasis on the impact of Wittelo's little known study of optics.