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1272Absolute Space and the Riddle of Rotation: Kant’s Response to NewtonOxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 7 257-308. 2016.Newton had a fivefold argument that true motion must be motion in absolute space, not relative to matter. Like Newton, Kant holds that bodies have true motions. Unlike him, though, Kant takes all motion to be relative to matter, not to space itself. Thus, he must respond to Newton’s argument above. I reconstruct here Kant’s answer in detail. I prove that Kant addresses just one part of Newton’s case, namely, his “argument from the effects” of rotation. And, to show that rotation is relative to m…Read more
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2016Huygens on Inertial Structure and RelativityPhilosophy of Science 83 (2): 277-298. 2016.I explain and assess here Huygens’ concept of relative motion. I show that it allows him to ground most of the Law of Inertia, and also to explain rotation. Thereby his concept obviates the need for Newton’s absolute space. Thus his account is a powerful foundation for mechanics, though not without some tension.
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477Kant's Philosophy of Mechanics in 1758In Oliver Thorndike (ed.), Rethinking Kant, vol. III, Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 158-179. 2011.
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1253Newton's Concepts of Force among the LeibniziansIn Mordechai Feingold (ed.), The Reception of Isaac Newton in Europe, Cambridge University Press. pp. 244-289. 2017.I argue that the key dynamical concepts and laws of Newton's Principia never gained a solid foothold in Germany before Kant in the 1750s. I explain this absence as due to Leibniz. Thus I make a case for a robust Leibnizian legacy for Enlightenment science, and I solve what Jonathan Israel called “a meaningful historical problem on its own,” viz. the slow and hesitant reception of Newton in pre-Kantian Germany.
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2563Euler, 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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535Kant 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.
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 |