Philosophical Mechanics in the Age of Reason

Abstract

Abstract Philosophical Mechanics in the Age of Reason argues that the Enlightenment was a golden age for the philosophy of material bodies, and for efforts to integrate coherently a philosophical concept of body with a mathematized theory of mechanics. Thereby, it articulates a new framing for the history of 18th century philosophy and science. It explains why, more than a century after Newton, physics broke away from philosophy to become an autonomous domain. And it casts fresh light on the structure and foundations of classical mechanics. Among the figures studied are Malebranche, Leibniz, Du Châtelet, Boscovich, and Kant, alongside d’Alembert, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace, and Cauchy.

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