Hostname: page-component-76c49bb84f-zv2rg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-13T08:19:42.229Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leibniz on Force and Absolute Motion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John T. Roberts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I elaborate and defend an interpretation of Leibniz on which he is committed to a stronger space-time structure than so-called Leibnizian space-time, with absolute speeds grounded in his concept of force rather than in substantival space and time. I argue that this interpretation is well-motivated by Leibniz's mature writings, that it renders his views on space, time, motion, and force consistent with his metaphysics, and that it makes better sense of his replies to Clarke than does the standard interpretation. Further, it illuminates the way in which Leibniz took his physics to be grounded in his metaphysics.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , July 2003 , pp. 553 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

‡

The author would like to thank Zvi Biener, Joseph Camp, John Earman, Nick Huggett, Jon Johnston, James E. McGuire, Christopher Smeenk, Peter Spillman, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Alexander, H.G. (ed.) (1956), The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence. New York: Barnes and Noble.Google Scholar
Ariew, Roger, and Garber, Daniel (eds.) (1989), Leibniz: Philosophical Essays. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Earman, John (1989), World Enough and Space-Time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Michael (1983), Foundations of Space-Time Theories: Relativistic Physics and Philosophy of Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gale, George (1988), “The Concept of ‘Force’ and Its Role in the Genesis of Leibniz’s Dynamical Viewpoint”, The Concept of ‘Force’ and Its Role in the Genesis of Leibniz’s Dynamical Viewpoint 26:45–67.Google Scholar
Garber, Daniel (1985), “Leibniz on the Foundations of Physics: The Middle Years”, in Okruhlik, Kathleen and Brown, James Robert (eds.), The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz. Dordrecht: Reidel, 27–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, Daniel (1995), “Leibniz: Physics and Philosophy”, in Jolley 1995, 270–352.Google Scholar
Hartz, Glenn A., and Cover, J.A. (1988), “Space and Time in the Leibnizian Metaphysic”, Space and Time in the Leibnizian Metaphysic 22:493–519.Google Scholar
Jolley, Nicholas (ed.) (1995), The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Loemker, Leroy E. (ed.) (1989), Leibniz: Philosophical Letters and Papers, 2d. ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
McGuire, James E. (1976), “‘Labyrinthus continui’: Leibniz on Substance, Activity, and Matter”, in Machamer, Peter K. and Turnbull, Robert G. (eds.), Motion and Time, Space and Matter: Interrelations in the History of Philosophy and Science. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 290–326.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac (1999), The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Translated by Cohen, I. Bernard and Whitman, Anne. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rescher, Nicholas (1967), The Philosophy of Leibniz. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand (1900), A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rutherford, Donald (1995), “Metaphysics: The Late Period”, in Jolley 1995, 124–175.Google Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1974), Space,Time and Space-Time. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sleigh, Robert C. Jr. (1990), Leibniz and Arnauld: A Commentary on Their Correspondence. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westfall, Richard S. (1971), Force in Newton’s Physics. London: MacDonald.Google Scholar
Wilson, Catherine (1989), Leibniz’s Metaphysics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Winterbourne, A.T. (1982), “On the Metaphysics of Leibnizian Space and Time”, On the Metaphysics of Leibnizian Space and Time 13:201–214.Google Scholar
Woolhouse, R., and Francks, R. (eds.) (1998), G.W. Leibniz: Philosophical Texts. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar