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2665Euler, Newton, and Foundations for MechanicsIn Chris Smeenk & Eric Schliesser (eds.), Newton's Principia, Oxford University Press. pp. 1-22. 2013.This chapter looks at Euler’s relation to Newton, and at his role in the rise of ‘Newtonian’ mechanics. It aims to give a sense of Newton’s complicated legacy for Enlightenment science, and to raise awareness that some key ‘Newtonian’ results really come from Euler.
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558Kant and the Object of Determinate ExperiencePhilosophers' Imprint 15 1-19. 2015.On an influential view, Newton's mechanics is built into Kant's very theory of exact knowledge. However, Newtonian dynamics had serious explanatory limits already known by 1750. Thus, we might worry that Kant's Analytic is too narrow to ground enough exact knowledge. In this paper, I draw on Enlightenment dynamics to show that Kant's notion of determinate objecthood is sufficiently broad, non-trivial, and still relevant to the present.
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810Kant’s third law of mechanics: The long shadow of LeibnizStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3): 493-504. 2013.This paper examines the origin, range and meaning of the Principle of Action and Reaction in Kant’s mechanics. On the received view, it is a version of Newton’s Third Law. I argue that Kant meant his principle as foundation for a Leibnizian mechanics. To find a ‘Newtonian’ law of action and reaction, we must look to Kant’s ‘dynamics,’ or theory of matter. I begin, in part I, by noting marked differences between Newton’s and Kant’s laws of action and reaction. I argue that these are explainable b…Read more
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410Rationalist Foundations and the Science of ForceIn Frederick Beiser, Corey W. Dyck & Brandon Look (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.
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1393Kant’s Early Theory of MotionThe Leibniz Review 19 29-61. 2009.This paper examines the young Kant’s claim that all motion is relative, and argues that it is the core of a metaphysical dynamics of impact inspired by Leibniz and Wolff. I start with some background to Kant’s early dynamics, and show that he rejects Newton’s absolute space as a foundation for it. Then I reconstruct the exact meaning of Kant’s relativity, and the model of impact he wants it to support. I detail (in Section II and III) his polemic engagement with Wolffian predecessors, and how he…Read more
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351Perpetuum mobiles and eternityIn Yitzhak Melamed (ed.), Eternity in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 173-178. 2016.Leibniz is committed to a form of cosmic eternity, on account of his natural theology and foundations for dynamics. However, his views on perpetuum mobiles entail that a particularly attractive type of cosmic eternity is out of reach for Leibniz.
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
General Philosophy of Science |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
19th Century Philosophy |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
History of Physics |
PhilPapers Editorships
Kant: Science, Logic, and Mathematics, Misc |
Kant's Scientific Work |
Christian Wolff |