Newton’s Physics and the Conceptual Structure of the Scientific Revolution

Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Aristotelian and Platonic Conceptions of Explanation....Pages 1-14
Aristotle’s Philosophy of Nature and Theory of Potentiality....Pages 15-44
Plato’s Concept of the Actual and His Philosophy of Nature....Pages 45-71
Introduction....Pages 72-74
The Copernican Harmony....Pages 75-93
Bacon’s Informative Logic....Pages 94-104
Informativity and Paradox: Galileo’s Conception of the Nature of Physical Reality....Pages 105-171
Descartes’ Informative Logic....Pages 172-237
Actual Infinity and Newton’s Calculus....Pages 238-252
Newton’s Logic of Space and Time....Pages 253-268
Modern Newtonian Historiography and the Puzzle of Newton’s Absolute Space....Pages 269-286
Absolute Motion and the Nature of Inertial Forces....Pages 287-318
Locke and the Meaning of “Empiricism”....Pages 319-341
Newton’s Invention of the Problem of Induction....Pages 342-397
Circularity and Newton’s Philosophy of Nature....Pages 398-436
Leibniz’ Aristotelian Philosophy of Nature....Pages 437-475
Berkeley’s Aristotelian Critique of Newton’s Physics....Pages 476-505
Epilogue....Pages 506-512
Back Matter....Pages 513-588