Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians', 'A New Kind of Science' and 'works'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

---

8 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / g. Applying mathematics

20660	At one level maths and nature are very similar, suggesting some deeper origin [Wolfram]
	Full Idea: At some rather abstract level one can immediately recognise one basic similarity between nature and mathematics ...this suggests that the overall similarity between mathematics and nature must have a deeper origin.
	From: Stephen Wolfram (A New Kind of Science [2002], p.772), quoted by Peter Watson - Convergence 17 'Philosophy'
	A reaction: Personally I think mathematics has been derived by abstracting from the patterns in nature, and then further extrapolating from those abstractions. So the puzzle in nature is not the correspondence with mathematics, but the patterns.

14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / h. Explanations by function

13195	To explain a house we must describe its use, as well as its parts [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: A house would be badly explained if we were to describe only the arrangement of its parts, but not its use.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians [1702], p.255)
	A reaction: This must partly fall under pragmatics (i.e. what the enquirer is interested in). But function plays a genuine role in artefacts, and also in evolved biological organs.

15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 10. Conatus/Striving

13193	Active force is not just potential for action, since it involves a real effort or striving [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: Active force should not be thought of as the simple and common potential [potentia] or receptivity to action of the schools. Rather, active force involves an effort [conatus] or striving [tendentia] toward action.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians [1702], p.252)
	A reaction: This is why Leibniz is lured into making his active forces more and more animistic, till they end up like proto-minds (though never, remember, conscious and willing minds).

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression

8120	Objects can be beautiful which express nothing at all, such as the rainbow [Herbart, by Tolstoy]
	Full Idea: Objects are often beautiful which express nothing at all, as, for instance, the rainbow, which is beautiful for its lines and colours and not for its mythological connexion with Iris, or Noah's rainbow.
	From: report of Johann Herbart (works [1830]) by Leo Tolstoy - What is Art? Ch.3
	A reaction: A nice counterexample to Tolstoy's own theory. The example is one of a natural beauty, but it would be harder to find examples in human art. How much the artist may feel, though, has little to do with the success of a work of art.

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 1. Laws of Nature

13194	God's laws would be meaningless without internal powers for following them [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: To say that, in creation, God gave bodies a law for acting means nothing, unless, at the same time, he gave them something by means of which it could happen that the law is followed.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians [1702], p.253)
	A reaction: This is the beginning of the modern rebellion against the medieval view of laws as imposed from outside on passive matter. Unfortunately for Leibniz, once you have postulated active internal powers, the external laws become redundant.

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces

13196	All qualities of bodies reduce to forces [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: All qualities of bodies .....are in the end reduced [revoco] to forces.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians [1702], p.256)
	A reaction: The dots conceal a long qualification, but he is essentially standing by this simple remark. If you substitute the word 'powers' for 'forces', I think that is just about right.

13192	Power is passive force, which is mass, and active force, which is entelechy or form [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: The dynamicon or power [potentia] in bodies is twofold, passive and active. Passive force [vis] constitutes matter or mass [massa], and active force constitutes entelechy or form.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians [1702], p.252)
	A reaction: This is explicitly equating the innate force understood in physics with Aristotelian form. The passive force is to explain the resistance of bodies. I like the equation of force with power. He says the entelechy is 'analogous' to a soul.

27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 4. Substantival Space

20659	Space and its contents seem to be one stuff - so space is the only existing thing [Wolfram]
	Full Idea: It seems plausible that both space and its contents should somehow be made of the same stuff - so that in a sense space becomes the only thing in the universe.
	From: Stephen Wolfram (A New Kind of Science [2002], p.474), quoted by Peter Watson - Convergence 17 'Philosophy'
	A reaction: I presume the concept of a 'field' is what makes this idea possible.