CALL FOR PAPERS: Historians have often regarded the opposition
encountered by Newtonianism during its triumphal progress in the
18th and 19th centuries as little more than conservative reaction
or temporary misunderstanding. Yet from Leibniz and Berkeley to
Goethe and the Naturphilosophen, powerful critics manifested profound
dissatisfaction with both the scientific content and the philosophical
foundations of Newtonianism.
The aim of the colloquium is to engage in a critical reexamination
of anti-Newtonianism by exploring its diverse origins, the content
of its arguments and practices, and its scientific and philosophical
consequences. The colloquium will be organized around four major
themes (subthemes listed are indicative, not exhaustive):
1. The principals of Newtonian mechanics. Cartesian reactions
to the publication of the Principia Mathematica; critiques of Leibniz,
Huygens, Fontenelle, and others of central Newtonian concepts (attraction,
force, relative and absolute motion, space and time.)
2. Theories of matter. Reception of and resistance to the
research program of the Queries in Newton's Opticks; the encounter
of Newtonianism with established research traditions in chemistry.
3. Hypothesis and experiment. The 18th century epistemological
debate regarding the legitimacy of the experimental method and inductive
generalization, the proscription of hypotheses, the relation of
mathematics to experience, and the validity of the method of fluxions;
competing forms of experimental practice in the work of Rizetti,
Mariotte, Goethe, and others.
4. Scientific knowledge and human culture. The evolving
(post-Principia) image of the cultural role of natural science;
philosophical (Berkeley) and poetical (Swift, Coleridge, Blake,
Goethe) critiques of the Newtonian conception of nature; theological
objections to Newtonianism.
To propose a paper (30 minutes, either in French or English), please
send a short abstract and a curriculum vitae to either:
Philippe Hamou
Université de Paris X - Nanterre
Departement de Philosophie
200, avenue de la Republique,
92001 Nanterre - France
tl/fax : 33-1-40-97-75-17 or 33-1-42-23-38-32
PhilippeHamou@aol.com
or
Neil Ribe
Insitut de Physique du Globe
4 Place Jussieu
75252 Parix cedex 05
tel (33)-1-44-27-24-79 fax (33)-1-44-27-24-81
ribe@ipgp.jussieu.fr