CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Karapetyan, Ani |
|---|---|
| Title | DESCARTES AND BOYLE'S THEORY OF MATTER: HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONNECTIONS |
| Summary | In the current thesis I investigate the historical and philosophical connections of Descartes and Boyle. The historical part of the thesis is devoted to an analysis of Boyle’s direct and indirect acquaintance with Descartes’ theory of matter: Boyle himself read Descartes and studied him with his assistant Robert Hooke. Also, Boyle was aware of the discussions of Descartes’ laws of motion conducted in Oxford and was informed about the outcomes via his colleague John Wallis. In the philosophical part I discuss mainly Boyle’s attitude towards Descartes’ Vortex Theory, the method of mechanical explanation and the method of quantification of laws of motion. The analysis of Boyle’s attitude towards Descartes’ Vortex Theory shows that the acceptance of the theory in his early works was later on transformed into a critical approach, though not into a rejection. The cases with the mechanical and mathematical methods are different: despite Boyle's claims about his method to mechanically and mathematically treat natural phenomena, these claims were not fully realized. In the case of the mechanical treatment the full realization is absent because of the criticism of exclusive mechanical approach. In the case of mathematical treatment the realization is absent because Boyle’s claims about the usefulness of mathematization were not applied to his law of fall. |
| Supervisor | Ben-Yami, Hanoch |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/karapetyan_ani.pdf |
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