If the collision rules implicitly invoke an external frame, this generates a well-documented internal contradiction in Descartes' system, which scholars like Slowik argue is better resolved by distinguishing operational from ontological commitments.
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The principles or laws that describe what happens when two objects bump into each other—how they bounce, stick together, or transfer energy.
external frame(as a concept in physics and Descartes' mechanics)
A fixed reference point or perspective from outside a system used to measure or describe what's happening inside it (like using the ground as a reference point to measure a moving car).
ontological commitments(Quine's conception as applied to our best global theory)
The demands that the truth of our total theory imposes on the world.
operational commitments(as a distinction from ontological commitments)
The practical rules or methods something actually follows when it works—what it *does* rather than what it claims to be fundamentally about.