Readings in the History of Science

In our April 23 meeting we discussed action at a distance relative to cause in Newton's 'Principia'. We will continue the discussion of cause in our May 7 meeting. In specific we will focus on a wider range of different kinds of cause. In the Janiak paper we covered last time it was suggested Newton propagated his ideas with a consilience approach to causation, disavowing action at a distance while demonstrating the many phenomena seen on different scales conforming to the inverse square law relation. The Steffen Ducheyne and Eric Weber paper, 'The concept of causation in Newton's mechanical and optical work' expands the discussion of causation to include intervention, counterfactual, and mechanical approaches. A copy of the Ducheyne/Weber paper can be obtained at https://apcz.umk.pl/LLP/article/view/LLP.2007.008/0.
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.