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    Mechanical natural philosophy held that all observable ca... — Carmelics
    Home/Modality & Possibility
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    Mechanical natural philosophy held that all observable causal relationships could in principle be reduced to the motions and impacts of microscopic parts of bodies.

    CausationModality & Possibility
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Communication of motion by contact or impulse was treated as the paradigm a priori intelligible causal connection.
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    • 2.All other causal connections were to be reduced to this paradigm.
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    • 3.The reduction was to be achieved by resolving observable causal relationships into the motions and impacts of the tiny microscopic parts of bodies.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Leibniz argued that impact mechanics presupposes active force (vis viva) irreducible to extension and motion, undermining purely mechanical reduction.
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    • 2.If force is a primitive, non-mechanical reality, then contact causation cannot serve as the self-sufficient explanatory base mechanical philosophy requires.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Newton's introduction of gravitational attraction as action-at-a-distance demonstrated a causally efficacious relationship explicitly not reducible to contact or impulse.
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    • 2.The success of Newtonian mechanics thus empirically refuted the completeness of the contact-mechanics paradigm from within natural philosophy itself.
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    Topics

    Modality & PossibilityCausation

    Related

    All other causal connections were to be reduced to this paradigm.Communication of motion by contact or impulse was treated as the paradigm a prio...If force is a primitive, non-mechanical reality, then contact causation cannot s...Leibniz argued that impact mechanics presupposes active force (vis viva) irreduc...
    +3 moreShow less
    Newton's introduction of gravitational attraction as action-at-a-distance demons...The reduction was to be achieved by resolving observable causal relationships in...The success of Newtonian mechanics thus empirically refuted the completeness of ...

    Similar

    The reduction was to be achieved by resolving observable causal relati...85%If causation is understood as ethereal force, energy transfer, or cons...78%The causal principle — that a cause must have at least as much formal ...78%Asserting that the causal theory of properties is true in order to sav...78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: kant-hume-causality
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    We believe that Hume’s discussion of the communication of motion by contact or impulse shows his debt to Newton especially clearly. In section 7, part 1 of the Enquiry Hume is criticizing the inherited ideas of necessary connection. We believe that both here and in section 4, part 1, where he rejects any a priori demonstration of causality, Hume is centrally concerned with the conception of necessary connection articulated by the mechanical natural philosophy. This philosophy had taken the commu
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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