On the philosophy of discovery : chapters historical and critical / by William Whewell. Including the completion of the 3d ed. of the Philosophy of the inductive sciences.
- William Whewell
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the philosophy of discovery : chapters historical and critical / by William Whewell. Including the completion of the 3d ed. of the Philosophy of the inductive sciences. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
537/572 page 517
![Perturbations,—a Principle whose importance we may here accept thus far ^hier in sofern anzufuhren ist); namely, so (k) far as it rests upon the Proposition tiiat the so-called attrac- tion is an operation of all the individual parts of bodies, as (I) being material. It lies in this, that matter in general assigns a center for itself (sich das centrum setzt), and the figure of the body is an element in the determination of its place; that collective bodies of the system recognize a reference to their Sun (sich ihre Sonne setzen), but also the individual bodies themselves, according to the relative position with regard to each other into which they come by their general motion, form a momentary relation of their gravity (schwere) towards each other, and are related to each other not only in abstract spatial relations, but at the same time assign to themselves a joint center, which however is again resolved [into the general center] in the universal system. As to what concerns the features of the path, to show how the fundamental determinations of Free Motion are connected with the Conception, cannot here be undertaken in a satisfac- tory and detailed manner, and must therefore be left to its fate. The proof from reason of the quantitative determinations of free motion can only rest upon the determinations of Concep- tions of space and time, the elements whose relation (intrinsic not extrinsic) motion is. (in) That, in the first place, the motion in general is a motion returning into itself, is founded on the determination of parti- cularity and individuality of the bodies in general (§ 2G9), so that partly they have a center in themselves, and partly at the same time their center in another. These are the determinations of Conceptions which form the basis of the false representatives (n) of Centripetal Force and Centrifugal Force, as if each of these were self-existing, extraneous to the other, and inde- pendent of it; and as if they only came in contact in their operations and consequently externally. They are, as has already been mentioned, the Lines which must be drawn for the mathematical determinations, transformed into physical realities. Further, this motion is uniformly accelerated, (and—as returning into itself—in turn uniformly retarded). In motion as free, Time and Space enter as different things which are to make themselves effective in the determination of the motion (u) (§ 266, note). In the so-called Explanation of the uniformly accelerated aud retarded motion, by means of the alternate](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20999203_0537.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
