Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The World' and 'Letter Seven'

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2 ideas

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / b. Laws of motion
Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion' [Descartes, by Papineau]
     Full Idea: Descartes incorporated the conservation of what he called 'quantity of motion', by which he meant mass times speed.
     From: report of René Descartes (The World [1631]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 2
     A reaction: Mass times velocity is now called 'momentum'. Is this the first ever conservation law? There are now lots of them.
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 3. Evolution
Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield]
     Full Idea: Archelaus wrote that life on Earth began in a primeval slime.
     From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Malcolm Schofield - Archelaus
     A reaction: This sounds like a fairly clearcut assertion of the production of life by evolution. Darwin's contribution was to propose the mechanism for achieving it. We should honour the name of Archelaus for this idea.