•  10
  •  3
    Estudo Histórico-Crítico da Fundamentação da Mec'nica por Mach
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 74 (1): 197-218. 2018.
    Mechanics was the foundation of physics in the 19th century. Its own foundation was, however, problematic. Mach proposed a new foundation of mechanics. As we shall see, the cause of acceleration is no longer the force, which was the great problem at that time, but rather the mass. The definition of force, which is a reading of the equation of force, did not solve, however, the conceptual problem. If we want to know what force is and we require that force is F in the equation F=ma, then we have t…Read more
  •  7
  •  8
    Could HPS Improve Problem-Solving?
    Science & Education 22 (5): 1043-1068. 2013.
  •  13
    Filosofia e Mecânica: Matéria inerte e força activa
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 61 (1). 2005.
    A Mecânica clássica parte da lei de inércia e usa um conceito de força que é consequência lógica da lei (§ 2-3). Acontece porém que nem a lei de inércia tem fundamento experimental (§ 1) nem o conceito de força tem referente nos fenómenos (§ 4). O estudo da função da lei e da força nas teorias mecânicas veio mostrar que a lei de inércia expressa apenas um movimento unidade e a força desvios à unidade (§ 5). Segue-se que a ciência praticava uma metodologia, mas expressava-se como possuindo um con…Read more
  •  30
    A Filosofia da Ciência de Hertz
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 63 (1/3). 2007.
    O presente artigo compõe-se de três partes: filosofia, imagem e literatura. Na primeira, o autor esclarece o conceito de imagem nos Princípios de Mecânica de Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) através das suas conexões com os conceitos de sistema e de modelo. Aqui se mostra de que modo uma teoria física deve ser entendida como uma imagem construída por nós. Na segunda parte do artigo, aborda-se a teoria física de Hertz em função do conceito de imagem: primeiramente, os fundamentos, incluindo a sua relaç…Read more
  •  4
    Comment on Eisenthal's ‘mechanics without mechanisms’
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 95 (C): 104-107. 2022.
  •  17
    On the Energy Concept Problem: Experiments and Interpretations
    Foundations of Science 26 (3): 607-624. 2020.
    The principle of conservation of energy tells us that ‘energy can neither be created nor destroyed but only transformed’. The validity of the principle is without question. The problem is the concept. Contemporary physicists have asserted that we do not know what energy is. We find, however, 19th century physicists, contemporary physicists and historians of science who converge on the point: Mayer and Joule discovered energy. Therefore, we do not know what energy is, but we know these authors di…Read more
  •  20
    On the Composition of Force: Algorithm and Experiment
    Axiomathes 31 (2): 199-210. 2021.
    Philosophers have disagreed on the composition of force for decades. The main divergence concerns the fundamental question: given a certain motion that is observable, which force or forces are present in it, component or resultant forces? The present paper focuses on the conditions for dealing with this problem. I will argue that we are not able to infer force from the observation of a motion, as required by the problem. I will further argue that the validity of the Newtonian algorithm is not a …Read more
  •  9
    The present comment on Solari and Natiello’s paper values their constructivist approach to Newtonian Mechanics. My critical point concerns only the link between the concept of force and phenomena. It will be shown that the idealised form of the law of inertia created by the authors avoids criticism of the law and that this law leads to the concept of force as the cause of acceleration. This concept appears in the authors’ reconstruction as an assumption. They add that this assumption must be con…Read more
  •  5
    Time and Space, Concepts and Phenomena
    Science & Education 26 (3-4): 439-443. 2017.
  • Zur Physik von Descartes: Naturgesetze und Stossregeln
    Philosophia Naturalis 39 (1): 45-60. 2002.
  • Zur Physik von Descartes: Naturgesetze und Stoßregeln
    Philosophia Naturalis 39 45-60. 2002.