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    Descartes' physics is difficult to reconcile with a stric... — Carmelics
    Home/Modality & Possibility
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    Descartes' physics is difficult to reconcile with a strict relational theory of space and motion.

    Causation
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Applying Descartes' collision rules requires an external reference frame to determine whether bodies are approaching one another.
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    • 2.A strict relational theory of space and motion does not permit recourse to external reference frames beyond local contiguous neighborhoods.
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    • 3.Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis must be abandoned for weaker relationist or absolutist interpretations to work.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Descartes' own definition of motion in Principles II.25 is explicitly relational: motion is transfer relative to immediately contiguous bodies.
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    • 2.Daniel Garber and Dennis Des Chene have shown that Descartes' collision rules can be reinterpreted as governing reciprocal transfer within contiguous neighborhoods without invoking absolute space.
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    • 3.The appearance of requiring external frames arises from conflating Descartes' kinematic definition of motion with his dynamical force concepts, which are analytically separable.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Ernst Mach's relational mechanics demonstrates that inertial effects can be grounded in relations to the distribution of all matter, not absolute space, suggesting relationism has more resources than the supporting arguments acknowledge.
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    • 2.Descartes' plenum entails that every body is always in contact with surrounding bodies, making the contiguous neighborhood relation physically exhaustive and thus sufficient for specifying all motions without remainder.
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    Related

    A strict relational theory of space and motion does not permit recourse to exter...Applying Descartes' collision rules requires an external reference frame to dete...Daniel Garber and Dennis Des Chene have shown that Descartes' collision rules ca...Descartes' own definition of motion in Principles II.25 is explicitly relational...
    +4 moreShow less
    Descartes' plenum entails that every body is always in contact with surrounding ...Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis must be abandoned for weaker relationi...Ernst Mach's relational mechanics demonstrates that inertial effects can be grou...The appearance of requiring external frames arises from conflating Descartes' ki...

    Similar

    According to the relational theory, space, time, and motion are just r...86%General relativity provides a framework in which this strictly relatio...83%A strict relational theory of space and motion does not permit recours...82%The Leibnizian-Machian relational conception of motion is incoherent w...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: descartes-physics
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    The problem with this line of reasoning, however, is that it only works if one presupposes that the two bodies are approaching one another, and this is not a feature of the system that can be captured by sole reference to the contiguous neighborhood of each individual body. Even if there is reciprocity of transfer between a body and its neighborhood, it is still not possible to determine which collision rule the impact will fall under, or if the bodies will even collide at all, unless some refer
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit