Reasoning with the Infinite: From the Closed World to the Mathematical UniverseUntil the Scientific Revolution, the nature and motions of heavenly objects were mysterious and unpredictable. The Scientific Revolution was revolutionary in part because it saw the advent of many mathematical tools—chief among them the calculus—that natural philosophers could use to explain and predict these cosmic motions. Michel Blay traces the origins of this mathematization of the world, from Galileo to Newton and Laplace, and considers the profound philosophical consequences of submitting the infinite to rational analysis. "One of Michael Blay's many fine achievements in Reasoning with the Infinite is to make us realize how velocity, and later instantaneous velocity, came to play a vital part in the development of a rigorous mathematical science of motion."—Margaret Wertheim, New Scientist |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Infinity Eliminated or Huygenss Theory of the Motion of Heavy Bodies | 13 |
2 Mathematical Speculations about Curvilinear Falls | 18 |
3 The Deductive Scheme of the Science of the Motion of Heavy Bodies | 27 |
First and Last Ratios in the Newtonian Theory of Central Forces | 38 |
Centrifugal Force and Weight | 43 |
3 The Deductive Scheme of Newtons Principia | 52 |
The Science of Motion in the Workshops of Infinity | 70 |
Motion Algorithmized | 108 |
2 The New Algorithmic Science of Motion | 118 |
Fontenelle and the Reasons of Infinity | 131 |
1 The Mathematics of Infinity | 133 |
2 Mathematical Physics and the Rationalization of Infinites | 145 |
Notes | 165 |
193 | |
211 | |
Other editions - View all
Reasoning with the Infinite: From the Closed World to the Mathematical Universe Michel Blay No preview available - 1998 |
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Page 198 - Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la vérité dans les sciences. Plus la Dioptrique, les Météores et la Géométrie, qui sont des essais de cette méthode.