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Single Idea 12924

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces ]

Full Idea

Motion in itself separated from force is merely relative, and one cannot establish its subject. But force is something real and absolute.

Gist of Idea

Motion alone is relative, but force is real, and establishes its subject

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1688.01.4/14)

Book Ref

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence', ed/tr. Mason,HT/Parkinson,GHR [Manchester UP 1967], p.167

A Reaction

The striking phrase here is that force enables us to 'establish its subject'. That is, force is at the heart of reality, and hence, through causal relations, individuates objects. That's how I read it.

The 25 ideas with the same theme [attractions and repulsions in physical nature]:

13548 The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca]
17259 'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes]
17547 Newton's idea of force acting over a long distance was very strange [Heisenberg on Newton]
20966 Newton introduced forces other than by contact [Newton, by Papineau]
20967 Newton's laws cover the effects of forces, but not their causes [Newton, by Papineau]
16708 Newton's forces were accused of being the scholastics' real qualities [Pasnau on Newton]
13153 I am studying the quantities and mathematics of forces, not their species or qualities [Newton]
12724 The aim is to discover forces from motions, and use forces to demonstrate other phenomena [Newton]
15986 Boyle and Locke suspect forces of being occult [Locke, by Alexander,P]
16685 An insurmountable force in a body keeps our hands apart when we handle it [Locke]
16709 Some people return to scholastic mysterious qualities, disguising them as 'forces' [Leibniz]
13192 Power is passive force, which is mass, and active force, which is entelechy or form [Leibniz]
13196 All qualities of bodies reduce to forces [Leibniz]
12758 It is plausible to think substances contain the same immanent force seen in our free will [Leibniz]
13167 We need the metaphysical notion of force to explain mechanics, and not just extended mass [Leibniz]
12924 Motion alone is relative, but force is real, and establishes its subject [Leibniz]
13096 The force behind motion is like a soul, with its own laws of continual change [Leibniz]
13097 Force in substance makes state follow state, and ensures the very existence of substance [Leibniz]
12719 Clearly, force is that from which action follows, when unimpeded [Leibniz]
15307 Leibniz uses 'force' to mean both activity and potential [Leibniz]
14171 Force is supposed to cause acceleration, but acceleration is a mathematical fiction [Russell]
12671 I deny forces as entities that intervene in causation, but are not themselves causal [Ellis]
15313 By 'force' I mean the sources of all actions - sometimes called 'powers' by their outcomes [Breheny]
21202 The strong force has a considerably greater range than the weak force [Martin,BR]
21181 Relativity and Quantum theory give very different accounts of forces [Hesketh]