de Motu and the Analyst: A Modern Edition, with Introductions and Commentary

ISBN-13: 9789401051446 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 232 str.

G. Berkeley; D. M. Jesseph

Opis

Berkeley's philosophy has been much studied and discussed over the years, and a growing number of scholars have come to the realization that scientific and mathematical writings are an essential part of his philosophical enterprise. The aim of this volume is to present Berkeley's two most important scientific texts in a form which meets contemporary standards of scholarship while rendering them accessible to the modern reader. Although editions of both are contained in the fourth volume of the Works, these lack adequate introductions and do not provide com plete and corrected texts. The present edition contains a complete and critically established text of both De Motu and The Analyst, in addi tion to a new translation of De Motu. The introductions and notes are designed to provide the background necessary for a full understanding of Berkeley's account of science and mathematics. Although these two texts are very different, they are united by a shared a concern with the work of Newton and Leibniz. Berkeley's De Motu deals extensively with Newton's Principia and Leibniz's Specimen Dynamicum, while The Analyst critiques both Leibnizian and Newto nian mathematics. Berkeley is commonly thought of as a successor to Locke or Malebranche, but as these works show he is also a successor to Newton and Leibniz."

Spis treści

De Motu.- Editor’s Introduction.- 1. Motion and the Mechanical Philosophy.- 1.1 Aristotelian and Scholastic Background.- 1.2 Descartes, Galileo, and the Inertial Concept of Motion.- 1.3 Leibniz and the Physics of Forces.- 1.4 Newtonian Mechanics.- 2. Disputed Points in the Mechanical Philosophy.- 2.1 The Vis Viva Controversy.- 2.2 The Force of Percussion.- 2.3 The Nature of Gravitation.- 3. The Place of De Motu in Berkeley’s Philosophy.- 4. A Note on the text and Translation.- 5. Bibliography.- Text.- Translation.- The Analyst.- Editor’s Introduction.- 1. The Mathematical Background.- 1.1 The Classical Standard of Rigor.- 1.2 Infinitesimal Calculus.- 1.3 The Newtonian Calculus of Fluxions.- 2. The Theological Background.- 3. Berkeley’s Case Against the Calculus.- 4. Outline Analysis.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 The Object of the Calculus.- 4.3 Principles and Demonstrations of the Modern Analysis.- 4.4 The Compensation of Errors Thesis.- 4.5 Alternative Interpretations of the Calculus Rejected.- 4.6 Conclusion and Queries.- 5. Responses to the Analyst.- 6. A note on the text.- 7. Bibliography.- Text.- Indexes.