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Newton's Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion

Rynasiewicz, Robert (2018) Newton's Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In the Scholium to the Definitions at the beginning of the {\em Principia\/} Newton distinguishes absolute time, space, place and motion from their relative counterparts and attempts to justify they are indeed ontologically distinct in that the absolute quantity cannot be reduced to some particular category of the relative, as Descartes had attempted by defining absolute motion to be relative motion with respect to immediately ambient bodies. Newton's bucket experiment, rather than attempting to show that absolute motion exists, is one of five arguments from the properties, causes and effects of motion that attempts to show that no such program can succeed, and thus that true motion can be adequately analyzed only by invoking immovable places, i.e., the parts of absolute space.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Rynasiewicz, Robertryno@jhu.edu
Additional Information: To appear in the Oxford Handbook of Newton, first online, later in print.
Keywords: Newton, Principia, Scholium, Motion, Space, Time, Place, Absolute vs. Relative, Rotating Bucket Experiment
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics
Depositing User: Robert Rynasiewicz
Date Deposited: 30 Dec 2018 23:32
Last Modified: 30 Dec 2018 23:32
Item ID: 15525
Official URL: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxford...
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics
Date: 30 December 2018
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15525

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