Project

The metaphysics and mathematics of collision

Code

3G007511

Duration

01 January 2011 → 31 December 2016

Funding

Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)

Promotor

Eric Schliesser

Research disciplines

Natural sciences
- History and foundations
Humanities and the arts
- Theory and methodology of philosophy
- Philosophy
- Ethics
- Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified

Keywords

collission laws scientific revolution Huygens

Project description

This project proposes the first systematic study of the conceptual and experimental foundations of a key episode in the history of science: the establishment of a European consensus on the proper rules of collision by Huygens, Wallis, and Wren promoted by the Royal Society of London in 1668-1669. By mixing Galilean and Cartesian principles with older elements they created a field of inquiry that became a crucial stepping stone to even more ambitious projects of the later Huygens and Newton.