Notes on The Metaphysical Foundation of Modern Physics Science

Esquimau

The Metaphysical Foundation of Modern Physics Science

by Edwin Arthur Burtt (第一版1924，二版1932)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Arthur_Burtt

Chapter I. Introduction

(A) The History Problem Suggested by theNature of Modern Thought

-- recurrent problems of its philosophers

-- medieval physics

  Theentire world of nature was held not only to exist for man’s sake, but to belikewise immediately present and fully intelligible to his mind.

  NO “time,space, mass, energy”

  BUT“substance, essence, matter, form, quality, quantity”

(B) The Metaphysical Foundation of ModernScience the Key to this Problem

   Medievalvs modern metaphysics

-- substance, accident, causality, essenceand idea, matter & form, potentiality & actuality

-- forces, motions, laws, changes of massin space and time

Chapter II. Copernicus and Kepler

A. The Problem of the New Astronomy

-- Ptolemaic method was still successful

-- Copernicus: a simpler and moreharmonious mathematical order

B. Metaphysical Bearings of thePre-Copernican Progress in Mathematics

-- later Middle Age: revival ofmathematical study

C. Ultimate Implications of Copernicus’Step—Revival of Pythagoreanism

-- mathematical structure

-- Aristotelianism vs Platonism

(今天看来Copernicus的方法很重要，但未必是最好的，很多错误理论的方法比他的更“好”。)

D. Kepler’s Early Acceptance of the NewWorld-Scheme

-- Stereometria Dolorum 1615

-- Neo-Platonism

-- seeker of exact mathematical knowledgeof astronomical nature

-- 前辈：Nicholas of Cusa

E. First Formulation of the New Metaphysics

-- Causality, Quantity, Primary andSecondary Qualities

-- Causality: whyà demonstrates their orderly and rational mathematical connexion

-- The real world is a world ofquantitative characteristics

Chapter III. Galileo

A. The Science of “Local Motion”

Galileo’s science of dynamics

B. Nature as Mathematical Order

-- Galileo’s Method

-- Mathematical language, principles ofgeometry

-- From a few experiments valid conclusionscan be drawn

-- Galileo’s method, three steps: intuitionor resolution, demonstration experiment

-- God made the world an immutablemathematical system

C. The Subjectivity of Secondary Qualities

-- world I: absolute, objective, immutableand mathematical

world II: relative, subjective, fluctuating, sensible

I: number, figure, magnitude, position andmotion à geometrical

II: all other qualities

-- Galileo’s atomism

-- Manà out of the real and primary realm

-- 有点像 Plato’s Form

D. Motion, Space and Time

-- objective analysis from “why” to “how”

-- Real world is a world of bodies movingin space and time

(Kuhn的范式变化，实际上就是metaphysics的变化)

E. The Nature of Causality—God and thePhysical World—Positivism 实证主义

-- ultimate causes of motion, force

-- Medieval Philosophy:

Nature essentially qualitative --> Man --> God

Galileo:

  God--> Man

     --> Nature as an independent existence

Chapter IV. Descartes

          (material universe, body-mind)

A. Mathematics as the Key to Knowledge

-- new tool: analytical geometry

B. Geometrical Conception of the PhysicalUniverse

-- vortex theory

  differentfrom the Platonic-Aristotelian

-- Christian view: God has created thephysical world for the purpose of man who needs to find his way back to God

--> first cause of motion

C. “Res extensa” and “res cogitans”

-- the secondary qualities are in equalreality but less important entity

-- 广延性，非广延性

D. Problem of Mind and Body

-- Body & Mind Relation

Chapter V. Seventeenth-Century English Philosophy

A. Hobbes’ Attack on the Cartesian Dualism

-- Hobbes 唯物主义者

-- Treatise of Human Nature

B. Treatment of Secondary Quantities andCausality

-- Hobbes’ materialistic reduction of theCartesian dualism

-- all sense qualities subjective

-- Hobbes’ materialism+ nominalism 唯名论

C. More’s Notion of Extension as a Categoryof Spirit

-- Henry More

-- accept the general structure of the primary-secondarydoctrine on Galileo

-- Cartesian rather than Hobbesian lines

-- Immortality of the Soul by More

D. The “Spirit of Nature”

-- the vicarious power of God upon matter(More)

E. Space as the Divine Presence

-- everything real is extended

  Godis an extended being

-- space and its relation to the divinebeing

-- The absolute space (More优先权？) must be a real existence.

-- Ralph Cadworth (Cambridge thinkers)

F. Barrow’s Philosophy of Method, Space andTime

-- Lectiones Mathematicae (1664-66)

-- 和Newtonian “philosophy”的关系

-- Space and Time acquired new meanings,became of central importance in men’s thinking

-- 几何——空间——加速度——时间——Metaphysical meaning

Chapter VI. Gilbert and Boyle

英国经验科学一直领先

A. The Non-Mathematical Scientific Current

  (非毕达哥拉斯主义)

-- William Gilbert: On the Loadstone andMagnetic Bodies

-- Magnetic force is something animate, itimitates a soul

-- William Harvey, circulation of the blood--> ethereal spirit

B. Boyle’s Importance as Scientist andPhilosopher

-- Boyle’s philosophy definition -->natural reason of man, free from prejudices and partiality

C. Acceptance and Defense of the MechanicalWorld View

-- Boyle: importance of mathematics in anatomistic interpretation of the chemical world

D. Value of Qualitative and TeleologicalExplanation

略

E. Insistence of Reality of SecondaryQualities—Conception of Man

-- Galileo and Descartes: mechanical world withoutman

Boyle Conception of Man (Man as the observer)

F. Pessimistic View of Human Knowledge

-- Positivism

-- How any certain knowledge at all ispossible of the real corporeal world outside, with which the soul is never incontact? How is it possible for it to build up an orderly system of ideas thatshall truly represent a world forever inaccessible to it?

-- interaction between the soul and theworld

-- “POSITIVISM”

G. Boyle’s Philosophy of the Ether

-- How to observe the ether?

-- the theory of Ether in the 17thcentury

Descartes

More, Gilbert

-- Robert Hooke, 1666, a letter to Boyle:experiments on the subject of gravity

H. God’s Relation to the Mechanical World

(这也算形而上学？)

I. Summary of the Pre-Newtonian Development

-- Copernicus --> mathematicalsimplicity, Platonic-Pythagorean conception

-- Kepler: beauty and harmony

-- Galileo: mathematically reducible world,a world of extension, figure, motion and weight

-- Descartes: first modern mechanicalcosmology, body-mind proposal

-- More: the spirit of God (extension,omnipresence)

-- Gilbert & Harvey: empiricalscientific movement without math

-- Boyle: stimulated by Gassendi’s revivalof Epicurean atomism

(这本书给Boyle很多credit)

Chapter VII. The Metaphysics of Newton

Section 1. Newton’s Method

A. The Mathematical Aspect

-- Mathematical Principles of NaturalPhilosophy

  “Weoffer this work as mathematical principles of philosophy”

B. The Empirical Aspect

-- empirical and experimental vs. deductiveand mathematical

C. Attack on “Hypotheses”

无多余假设

D. Newton’sUnion of Mathematics and Experiments

(方法论问题，其实很随意的)

Section 2. The Doctrine of Positivism

Section 3. Newton’s General Conception of the World, andof Man’s Relation to It

-- The world of physics is the sensibleworld, but can be reduced to mathematical laws

-- Man: hear, smell, touch etc.

Section 4. Space, Time and Mass

-- Criticism of Newton’s Philosophy of Space and Time

  Berkeley’s Principle of HumanKnowledge

Section 5. Newton’s Conception of the Ether

A. The Function of the Ether

-- it propagates motion across distances

(以下章节只记录标题，内容实在不太相关，略去)

B. Newton’s Early Speculations

C. Development of a More Settled Theory

Section 6. God-Creator and Preserver of theOrder of the World

A. Newton as Theologian

B. God’s Present Duties in the CosmicEconomy

C. The Historical Relation of Newton’sTheism

Chapter VIII. Conclusion

-- the transformation of the metaphysicalview: (1) of reality; (2) of causality; (3) of the human mind

-- world of atoms

-- God from Supreme Final Cause（中世纪）--> First Efficient Cause

这书没有涉及到Post-NewtonianPhysics (except Berkeley and Huxley)，抽取的人物都是从今天角度看来伟大的科学家，但是未必在当时是最为显要的。原因很明显，很多成就必须要用时间来检验。所以一个更好的方法是把当时同时代的其他人物也介绍一下，看看为什么他们的理论消亡了，而不是只是选择几个事后诸葛亮似的样品做描述性分析。

还有一个基本问题，metaphysics与theology的界限到底是什么？Metaphysics必须依附于physics才有意义，否则很多时候都是空谈，从今天来看，也只能按照分析哲学家的观点来说，是没有意义的了。

Esquimau

我老来试试自己的新头像