Readings in the History of Science

We're switching gears. We've finished Nancy Cartwright's 'How the laws of physics lie' and we're now going to step back to Newton, and specifically first look at force and cause in Newton.In some ways this will continue the some of the themes Cartwright discussed, eg. explanation, cause, and mathematical models. The pupose of the switch is to move on to mathematical developments in the 19th century. We're also going to switch from meeting on
Wednesday at 6pm to meeting on Thursday at 6pm. In our April 23 meeting we'll discuss Andrew Janiak's 'Newton and the reality of force'. In our May 21 meeting we'll discuss Steffen Ducheyne and Erik Weber's 'The concept of causation in Newton's mechanical and optical work'.
Subsequent readings will include:
Jan Rychlewski, ‘The origins of Newton’s mechanics. mass, force, and gravity’
Sandro Caparrini and Craig Fraser, ‘Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century’
Helmut Pulte, ‘Jacobi’s Criticism of Lagrange: The Changing Role of Mathematics. If you need a copy of the Janiak or Ducheyne articles send a note to [kacheolme@gmail.com](mailto:kacheolme@gmail.com) with Janiak Ducheyne in the subject line.

Note: after our May 21 meeting we will resume meeting weekly.