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Single Idea 13096

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

Full Idea

I recognise, in the active force which exerts itself through motion, the primitive entelechy or in a word, something analogous to the soul, whose nature consists in a certain perpetual law of the same series of changes through which it runs unhindered.

Gist of Idea

The force behind motion is like a soul, with its own laws of continual change

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Burcher De Volder [1706], 1699), quoted by Cover,J/O'Leary-Hawthorne,J - Substance and Individuation in Leibniz 6.1.3

Book Ref

Cover,J/O'Leary-Hawthorne,J: 'Substance and Individuation in Leibniz' [CUP 1999], p.223

A Reaction

This is a hugely metaphysical account of force, contrasting with Newton's largely mathematical account. He very often says that force is 'analogous' to the soul, rather than that it actually is a soul. He never quite believes that monads are real minds.

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]