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Ideas for 'De Corpore (Elements, First Section)', 'works' and 'From Metaphysics to Ethics'

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2 ideas

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement
Motion is losing one place and acquiring another [Hobbes]
     Full Idea: Motion is privation of one place, and the acquisition of another.
     From: Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 1.6.06)
     A reaction: This is basically the 'at-at' theory of motion which empiricists like, because it breaks motion down into atoms of experience. Hobbes needs an ontology which includes 'places'.
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces
'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes]
     Full Idea: I define 'force' to be the impetus or quickness of motion multiplied either into itself, or into the magnitude of the movent, by means of which whereof the said movent works more or less upon the body that resists it.
     From: Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 3.15.02)
     A reaction: Not very helpful, perhaps, but it shows a view of force at quite an early date, well before Newton.