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    Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis is more likely ... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis is more likely intended to counter the Scholastic view that motion is caused by a special property intrinsic to the moving body, rather than to defend relational motion.

    Philosophy of Language
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    Reasons For

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    • 1.If there is nothing in a moving body that differs from its neighborhood of contiguous bodies, then a body's motion is not due to it possessing a special property that its neighborhood lacks.
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    • 2.Some Scholastics, such as Buridan, held that motion is caused by a special bodily property.
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    • 3.The reciprocity of transfer thesis denies any such distinguishing property between a body and its neighborhood.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Descartes explicitly defines motion in Principles II.25 as transfer relative to immediately contiguous bodies, making relationality constitutive of motion itself.
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    • 2.A thesis that defines motion relationally cannot be merely incidental to that relationality; the anti-Scholastic and relational aims are logically inseparable in Descartes' framework.
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    • 3.Garber's reading in 'Descartes' Metaphysical Physics' shows Descartes' reciprocity thesis directly entails that no single body has privileged mover status, which just is a claim about relational motion.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Buridan's impetus theory was largely dormant as a live target by Descartes' time, whereas Descartes' contemporaries like More pressed him specifically on absolute versus relational motion.
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    • 2.The historical context of the Descartes-More correspondence shows Descartes defending reciprocity precisely to resist absolute space, not primarily to rebut Scholastic property theories.
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    • 3.Attributing the thesis solely to anti-Scholastic motivation commits the genetic fallacy by conflating a doctrine's polemical origin with its primary philosophical function.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageCausation

    Key Terms

    Descartes
    # Descartes René Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician from the 1600s who fundamentally changed how people think about knowledge and the mind. He's famous for the idea "I think, therefore I am" (cogito ergo sum), which means that the very fact that you can think proves you exist—a foundation for modern philosophy. He also invented the coordinate system used in mathematics (the x and y axes on a graph), which connects geometry and algebra in practical ways we still use today.
    Motion(Alexander's metaphysics of spacetime)
    The union of space and time; a phenomenon that is both successive (from time) and possesses distinguishable elements (from space).
    Relational motion(as the alternative view Descartes may or may not be defending)
    The idea that motion only exists or matters in relation to other objects or observers—something is 'moving' only because we're comparing it to something else that's stationary.
    Scholastic view(as the opposing viewpoint being countered)
    The dominant way of thinking in medieval universities (roughly 1200s-1600s) that combined Christian theology with ancient Greek philosophy, especially ideas from Aristotle.
    intrinsic property(Contrasted with relational property in the analysis of molecular shape)
    A property possessed by an object independently of its relations to other things
    reciprocity of transfer thesis(Cited as a potential resource for distinguishing rule four from rule five)
    A Cartesian principle invoked to explain the transfer of motion between colliding bodies, related to the idea that motion can be transferred from one body to another in collision

    Related

    A thesis that defines motion relationally cannot be merely incidental to that re...Attributing the thesis solely to anti-Scholastic motivation commits the genetic ...Buridan's impetus theory was largely dormant as a live target by Descartes' time...Descartes explicitly defines motion in Principles II.25 as transfer relative to ...
    +6 moreShow less
    Garber's reading in 'Descartes' Metaphysical Physics' shows Descartes' reciproci...If there is nothing in a moving body that differs from its neighborhood of conti...

    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

    Some Scholastics, such as Buridan, held that motion is caused by a special bodil...
    The historical context of the Descartes-More correspondence shows Descartes defe...
    The reciprocity of transfer thesis denies any such distinguishing property betwe...
    This denial targets the Scholastic property-of-motion view, not the question of ...

    Similar

    Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis holds that motion is determi...90%The reciprocity of transfer thesis denies any such distinguishing prop...87%Descartes' reciprocity of transfer thesis underdetermines the outcome ...86%Descartes' account of motion supports the 'reciprocity of transfer': t...86%
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