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213114

Leibniz

force as the essence of substance

J. Christiaan Boudri

pp. 70-102

Abstract

Everyone who addresses the controversy surrounding the concept of living force discusses Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, or rather, his legacy. In fact we owe both the definition of the term and the beginning of the controversy to Leibniz.2 One might consider a less emphatic view of his importance, if one took only the superficial and one-sided transmission of Leibniz's philosophy in the eighteenth century into account. Many of the physicists from that period, even those who were sympathetic to his ideas, had a caricatured picture of Leibniz's system.

Publication details

Published in:

Boudri J. Christiaan (2002) What was mechanical about mechanics: the concept of force between metaphysics and mechanics from Newton to Lagrange. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 70-102

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-3672-5_3

Full citation:

Boudri J. Christiaan (2002) Leibniz: force as the essence of substance, In: What was mechanical about mechanics, Dordrecht, Springer, 70–102.