Programska knjižica - Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo

dowed by various forces at the various distances, by which the molecules are
mutually attracted or repulsed.” (th. XI) But he adopted Bošković’s doctrine
on the attractive and repulsive forces, which are governed by the “unique law
of nature” (th. XII). Following the thirteenth thesis “This law of forces is aptly
shown by a unique continuous curve (curva unica continua),” Biwald made a
most thorough examination of the natural phenomena which prove the action
of the attractive and repulsive forces in nature and the “alternations of forces”
(virium alternationes) from attractive to repulsive and vice versa. Moreover,
he followed Bošković’s thesis on the nature of light (effluvium subtilissimum
corporis lucentis, th. XLII). Next year Biwald reprinted this thesaurus.
In 1766 extensive Assertiones ex physica were printed in Vienna. They
were defended by Baron Joseph Penckler and accompanied the edition of
Bošković’s and Benvenuti’s treatises published under the title Dissertationes
physicae tres. Contrary to the genre standards, the theses were not numbered,
nor was the name of the professor who wrote them explicitly cited. The information
that the thesaurus was defended at the Collegium Regium Theresianum
helps trace the author, as in the period 1763–1773 mathematics and philosophy
were lectured at the Theresianum by no other than Pál Makó.
Assertiones ex physica are divided into fifteen chapters. Bošković’s influence
clearly reverberates as early as the first two chapters. In the first chapter
“De lege virium in natura existentium,” Makó expounded Bošković’s doctrine
on the attractive and repulsive forces, having included a detailed description
of Bošković’s curve of forces. In the last sentence he used for the first time
Bošković’s key term materiae puncta, without formerly introducing it. Until
then he had used the term elementa corporum. In the second chapter “De
praecipuis corporum proprietatibus,” by means of Bošković’s law of forces
the Viennese professor first explained the property of physical bodies which
he termed “solidity or impenetrability, also physically continuous extension”
(soliditas seu impenetrabilitas, extensio item physice continua). In this chapter
he discussed the three general properties of bodies: divisibility, cohesion and
elasticity. In conclusion, Makó pointed to the “variety of particles” (varietas
particularum), which helps the understanding of the chemical changes such as
“fermentations, solutions, precipitations of the bodies” (corporum fermentationes,
solutiones, praecipitationes).
In the seventh chapter “De universali materiae gravitate,” Makó has explained
the force of gravitation in different cases, starting with the simplest,
when the point of matter situated outside the spherical surface acts on the particular
points of that surface. Although still hesitant in the first chapter, here
from the very start he used Bošković’s term punctum materiae. In the eighth
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