39 found
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  1. Emilie du Chatelet's Metaphysics of Substance.Marius Stan - 2018 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 56 (3):477-496.
    Much early modern metaphysics grew with an eye to the new science of its time, but few figures took it as seriously as Emilie du Châtelet. Happily, her oeuvre is now attracting close, renewed attention, and so the time is ripe for looking into her metaphysical foundation for empirical theory. Accordingly, I move here to do just that. I establish two conclusions. First, du Châtelet's basic metaphysics is a robust realism. Idealist strands, while they exist, are confined to non-basic regimes. (...)
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  2. Philosophical Mechanics in the Age of Reason.Katherine Brading & Marius Stan - 2023 - New York: Oxford University Press USA.
  3. Kant’s third law of mechanics: The long shadow of Leibniz.Marius Stan - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3):493-504.
    This paper examines the origin, range and meaning of the Principle of Action and Reaction in Kant’s mechanics. On the received view, it is a version of Newton’s Third Law. I argue that Kant meant his principle as foundation for a Leibnizian mechanics. To find a ‘Newtonian’ law of action and reaction, we must look to Kant’s ‘dynamics,’ or theory of matter. I begin, in part I, by noting marked differences between Newton’s and Kant’s laws of action and reaction. I (...)
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  4.  92
    Kant's Philosophy of Science.Eric Watkins & Marius Stan - 2023 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  5. From metaphysical principles to dynamical laws.Marius Stan - 2021 - In David Marshall Miller & Dana Jalobeanu (eds.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy of the Scientific Revolution. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. pp. 387-405.
    My thesis in this paper is: the modern concept of laws of motion—qua dynamical laws—emerges in 18th-century mechanics. The driving factor for it was the need to extend mechanics beyond the centroid theories of the late-1600s. The enabling result behind it was the rise of differential equations. -/- In consequence, by the mid-1700s we see a deep shift in the form and status of laws of motion. The shift is among the critical inflection points where early modern mechanics turns into (...)
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  6. Newtonianism and the physics of du Châtelet's Institutions de physique.Marius Stan - 2022 - In Anna Marie Roos & Gideon Manning (eds.), Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar: Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold. Springer. pp. 277-97.
    Much scholarship has claimed the physics of Emilie du Châtelet’s treatise, Institutions de physique, is Newtonian. I argue against that idea. To do so, I distinguish three strands of meaning for the category ‘Newtonian science,’ and I examine her book against them. I conclude that her physics is not Newtonian in any useful or informative sense. To capture what is specific about it, we need better interpretive categories.
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  7. Kant’s Early Theory of Motion.Marius Stan - 2009 - The Leibniz Review 19:29-61.
    This paper examines the young Kant’s claim that all motion is relative, and argues that it is the core of a metaphysical dynamics of impact inspired by Leibniz and Wolff. I start with some background to Kant’s early dynamics, and show that he rejects Newton’s absolute space as a foundation for it. Then I reconstruct the exact meaning of Kant’s relativity, and the model of impact he wants it to support. I detail (in Section II and III) his polemic engagement (...)
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  8. Newton and Wolff: The Leibnizian reaction to the Principia, 1716-1763.Marius Stan - 2012 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3):459-481.
    Newton rested his theory of mechanics on distinct metaphysical and epistemological foundations. After Leibniz's death in 1716, the Principia ran into sharp philosophical opposition from Christian Wolff and his disciples, who sought to subvert Newton's foundations or replace them with Leibnizian ideas. In what follows, I chronicle some of the Wolffians' reactions to Newton's notion of absolute space, his dynamical laws of motion, and his general theory of gravitation. I also touch on arguments advanced by Newton's Continental followers, such as (...)
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  9.  77
    Laws and natural philosophy.Marius Stan - forthcoming - In _The History and Philosophy of Science, 1450 to 1750._. Bloombury Press.
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  10. Phoronomy: space, construction, and mathematizing motion.Marius Stan - 2022 - In Michael Bennett McNulty (ed.), Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 80-97.
  11. Absolute Time: The Limit of Kant's Idealism.Marius Stan - 2019 - Noûs 53 (2):433-461.
    I examine here if Kant can explain our knowledge of duration by showing that time has metric structure. To do so, I spell out two possible solutions: time’s metric could be intrinsic or extrinsic. I argue that Kant’s resources are too weak to secure an intrinsic, transcendentally-based temporal metrics; but he can supply an extrinsic metric, based in a metaphysical fact about matter. I conclude that Transcendental Idealism is incomplete: it cannot account for the durative aspects of experience—or it can (...)
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  12. Newton's Concepts of Force among the Leibnizians.Marius Stan - 2017 - In Mordechai Feingold (ed.), The Reception of Isaac Newton in Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 244-289.
    I argue that the key dynamical concepts and laws of Newton's Principia never gained a solid foothold in Germany before Kant in the 1750s. I explain this absence as due to Leibniz. Thus I make a case for a robust Leibnizian legacy for Enlightenment science, and I solve what Jonathan Israel called “a meaningful historical problem on its own,” viz. the slow and hesitant reception of Newton in pre-Kantian Germany.
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  13. Huygens on Inertial Structure and Relativity.Marius Stan - 2016 - Philosophy of Science 83 (2):277-298.
    I explain and assess here Huygens’ concept of relative motion. I show that it allows him to ground most of the Law of Inertia, and also to explain rotation. Thereby his concept obviates the need for Newton’s absolute space. Thus his account is a powerful foundation for mechanics, though not without some tension.
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  14. Absolute Space and the Riddle of Rotation: Kant’s Response to Newton.Marius Stan - 2016 - Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 7:257-308.
    Newton had a fivefold argument that true motion must be motion in absolute space, not relative to matter. Like Newton, Kant holds that bodies have true motions. Unlike him, though, Kant takes all motion to be relative to matter, not to space itself. Thus, he must respond to Newton’s argument above. I reconstruct here Kant’s answer in detail. I prove that Kant addresses just one part of Newton’s case, namely, his “argument from the effects” of rotation. And, to show that (...)
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  15.  50
    Doctrines of force in the Enlightenment.Marius Stan - forthcoming - In Aaron Garrett & James Schmidt (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Oxford University Press.
  16. Metaphysical Foundations of Neoclassical Mechanics.Marius Stan - 2017 - In Michela Massimi & Angela Breitenbach (eds.), Kant and the Laws of Nature. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 214-234.
    I examine here if Kant’s metaphysics of matter can support any late-modern versions of classical mechanics. I argue that in principle it can, by two different routes. I assess the interpretive costs of each approach, and recommend the most promising strategy: a mass-point approach.
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  17. Unity for Kant’s Natural Philosophy.Marius Stan - 2014 - Philosophy of Science 81 (3):423-443.
    I uncover here a conflict in Kant’s natural philosophy. His matter theory and laws of mechanics are in tension. Kant’s laws are fit for particles but are too narrow to handle continuous bodies, which his doctrine of matter demands. To fix this defect, Kant ultimately must ground the Torque Law; that is, the impressed torque equals the change in angular momentum. But that grounding requires a premise—the symmetry of the stress tensor—that Kant denies himself. I argue that his problem would (...)
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  18. Euler, Newton, and Foundations for Mechanics.Marius Stan - 2018 - In Chris Smeenk & Eric Schliesser (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Isaac Newton. Oxford University Press. pp. 1-22.
    This chapter looks at Euler’s relation to Newton, and at his role in the rise of ‘Newtonian’ mechanics. It aims to give a sense of Newton’s complicated legacy for Enlightenment science, and to raise awareness that some key ‘Newtonian’ results really come from Euler.
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  19. Newton's Metaphysics: Essays by Eric Schliesser (review).Marius Stan - 2024 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 62 (1):157-159.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Newton's Metaphysics: Essays by Eric SchliesserMarius StanEric Schliesser. Newton's Metaphysics: Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 328. Hardback, $99.90.Newton owes his high regard to the quantitative science he left us, but his overall picture of the world had some robustly metaphysical threads woven in as well. Posthumous judgment about the value of these threads has varied wildly. Christian Wolff thought him a metaphysical rustic, as did Hans (...)
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  20.  81
    Beyond Newton, Leibniz and Kant: Insufficient Foundations, 1687–1786 (2nd edition).Marius Stan - 2023 - In Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.), Between Leibniz, Newton, and Kant: Philosophy and Science in the Eighteenth Century. Springer. pp. 295-310.
    Early modern foundations for mechanics came in two kinds, nomic and material. I examine here the dynamical laws and pictures of matter given respectively by Newton, Leibniz, and Kant. I argue that they fall short of their foundational task, viz. to represent enough kinematic behavior; or at least to explain it. In effect, for the true foundations of classical mechanics we must look beyond Newton, Leibniz, and Kant.
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  21. Absolute and relative motion.Marius Stan - 2022 - In Charles Wolfe Dana Jalobeanu (ed.), Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer. pp. 1-8.
    Modern philosophy of physics debates whether motion is absolute or relative. The debate began in the 1600s, so it deserves a close look here. Primarily, it was a controversy in metaphysics, but it had epistemic aspects too. I begin with the former, and then touch upon the latter at the end.
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  22. Kant and the Object of Determinate Experience.Marius Stan - 2015 - Philosophers' Imprint 15:1-19.
    On an influential view, Newton's mechanics is built into Kant's very theory of exact knowledge. However, Newtonian dynamics had serious explanatory limits already known by 1750. Thus, we might worry that Kant's Analytic is too narrow to ground enough exact knowledge. In this paper, I draw on Enlightenment dynamics to show that Kant's notion of determinate objecthood is sufficiently broad, non-trivial, and still relevant to the present.
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  23. Evidence and explanation in Kant's doctrine of laws.Marius Stan - 2021 - Studi Kantiani 34:141-49.
    I emphasize two merits of Eric Watkins’ account in "Kant on Laws": the strong evidential support it has, and the central place it gives to Kant’s laws of mechanics. Then, I raise two questions for further research. 1. What kind of evidential reasoning confirms a Kantian law? 2. Do natures explain Kantian laws? If so, how?
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  24. Kant's Philosophy of Mechanics in 1758.Marius Stan - 2011 - In Oliver Thorndike (ed.), Rethinking Kant, vol. III. Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 158-179.
  25. Rationalist Foundations and the Science of Force.Marius Stan - forthcoming - In Frederick Beiser, Corey W. Dyck & Brandon Look (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
  26. Perpetuum mobiles and eternity.Marius Stan - 2016 - In Yitzhak Melamed (ed.), Eternity in Early Modern Philosophy. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 173-178.
    Leibniz is committed to a form of cosmic eternity, on account of his natural theology and foundations for dynamics. However, his views on perpetuum mobiles entail that a particularly attractive type of cosmic eternity is out of reach for Leibniz.
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  27.  73
    From General to Special Metaphysics of Nature.Michael Bennett McNulty & Marius Stan - 2017 - In Matthew C. Altman (ed.), The Palgrave Kant Handbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 493-511.
    In his Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, Kant presents the “pure part” of natural science – that is, the a priori principles holding of matter. This special metaphysics of matter is, Kant claims, grounded on the general metaphysics of nature described in the System of Principles of his first Critique. This chapter develops a comprehensive account of Kant’s framework for natural science that touches on interpretive issues that arise in the transition from general to special metaphysics and that outlines his (...)
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  28.  61
    Kant's Natural Philosophy.Marius Stan - forthcoming - Cambridge University Press.
    This Element analyzes Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology of the exact science of nature. It explains his theory of true motion and ontology of matter. In addition, it reconstructs the patterns of evidential reasoning behind Kant’s foundational doctrines.
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  29. (1 other version)The History and Philosophy of Science, 1450 to 1750..Marius Stan (ed.) - forthcoming - Bloombury Press.
     
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  30. Theory, Evidence, Data: Themes from George E. Smith.Marius Stan & Christopher Smeenk - 2023 - Springer.
    A volume of papers inspired by the work of George E. Smith on confirmation and evidence in advanced science—from Newton's gravitation theory to the physics of molecules.
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  31. Eric Schliesser, Newton's Metaphysics. OUP 2021. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - forthcoming - Journal of the History of Philosophy.
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  32. Standing colossus: Newton and the French. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2019 - Annals of Science 76 (3-4):347-354.
    A critical discussion of J.B. Shank, 'Before Voltaire: the French Origins of "Newtonian" Mechanics,' University of Chicago Press, 2018.
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  33. (1 other version)Michael Friedman: Kant’s construction of nature. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2014 - Metascience 23 (2):233-242.
  34. Review: Kant, Natural Science[REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2013 - Metascience 23 (1):65-70.
  35.  9
    Edward Slowik's The Deep Metaphysics of Space. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2018 - BJPS Review of Books.
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  36.  33
    Response to H. Floris Cohen's essay review on Newtonian scholarship. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2019 - British Journal for the History of Science 52 (2):359-360.
    In a review of recent Newton scholarship, H. Floris Cohen charges that my paper is not a ‘case of worthwhile innovation, or even of any innovation at all’. I beg to differ.
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  37.  26
    Space: A History ed. by Andrew Janiak. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2021 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 59 (2):343-344.
    This is a book with a purpose: it aims to chronicle the life of a concept from its birth in ancient Greece to its growth into centrality for early modern metaphysics, and its end with Kant, after whom classical space got displaced to a marginal position. The volume is commendable for its good balance of broad scope, depth of insight, and careful exposition. Its chapters impressively combine analytic sharpness with sensitivity to historical context and philological nuance. Moreover, the gender balance (...)
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  38.  31
    Eric Voegelin, Religiile politice. [REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2012 - History of Communism in Europe 3:194-199.
  39.  43
    (1 other version)Review: Massimi, Michela (ed.), Kant and Philosophy of Science Today[REVIEW]Marius Stan - 2011 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1 (2):364-367.