Du Châtelet, induction, and Newton's rules for reasoning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21603197 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aaron Wells (0000-0003-0132-8238, Department of Philosophy Universität Paderborn Paderborn Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1033-1048 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-8373 • E-ISSN: 1468-0378 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ejop.12942 |
| OpenAlex | W4392370767 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
I examine Du Châtelet's methodology for physics and metaphysics through the lens of her engagement with Newton's Rules for Reasoning in Natural Philosophy. I first show that her early manuscript writings discuss and endorse these Rules. Then, I argue that her famous published account of hypotheses continues to invoke close analogues of Rules 3 and 4, despite various developments in her position. Once relevant experimental evidence and some basic constraints are met, it is legitimate to inductively generalize from observations; general hypotheses can thereafter be assumed as true until contrary experiments show otherwise. I conclude by arguing that this account of induction plays an essential role in her metaphysics, both in an argument for simple substances—which has an inductive premise—and in her attempt to distinguish acceptable and unacceptable metaphysical commitments
Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · History and Theory of Mathematics
Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar
Newton on Matter and Activity
Émilie Du Châtelet and the Problem of Bodies
Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences
The Role of Experience in Wolff’s General Cosmology
Logic or the Art of Thinking
“The main Business of natural Philosophy”
Du Châtelet on Sufficient Reason and Empirical Explanation
Émilie Du Châtelet’s Epistemology of Hypotheses
Newtonianism and the Physics of Du Châtelet’s Institutions de Physique
From Translation to Philosophical Discourse – Emilie du Châtelet’s Commentaries on Newton and Leibniz
Do Newton’s rules of reasoning guarantee truth … must they
"Newton's "Experimental Philosophy
Émilie Du Châtelet’s Break from the French Newtonians
The principia
Is Newton a ‘radical empiricist’ about method
Newton
Émilie Du Châtelet and the Foundations of Physical Science
Emilie du Châtelet's Metaphysics of Substance
The Scope, Limits, and Distinctiveness of the Method of 'Deduction from the Phenomena
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |