pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

Second edition (Wrst printed at Mainz in the same year). Advertised in
the Trinity Term Catalogue (June–July) priced at 7d bound (T.C. I,
81–2). Wing L962; ESTC R11467; Ravier 15.
‘After reading the papers of Huygens and Wren on collision and the
Elementorum philosophiae of Hobbes, Leibniz composed his Hypothesis physica
nova... [The second part] Theoria motus abstracti oVers a rational theory of
motion whose axiomatic foundation... was inspired by the indivisibles of
Cavalieri and the notion of conatus proposed by Hobbes. Both the word conatus
and the mechanical idea were taken from Hobbes, while the mathematical
reasoning was derived from Cavalieri. After his invention of the calculus,
Leibniz was able to replace Cavalieri’s indivisbles by diVerentials and this
enabled him to apply his theory of conatus to the solution of dynamical
problems... Leibniz’ doctrine of conatus, in which a body is conceived as a
momentary mind, that is, a mind without memory, may be regarded as a Wrst
sketch of the philosophy of monads... Mathematically, conatus represents for
Leibniz accelerative force in the Newtonian sense, so that, by summing an
inWnity of conatuses (that is by integration), the eVect of a continuous force can
be measured. Examples of conatus given by Leibniz are centrifugal force and
what he called the solicitation of gravity. Further clariWcations of the concept
of conatus are given in the Essay de dynamique and Specimen dynamicum, where
conatus is compared with the static force of vis motua in contrast to vis viva,
which is produced by an inWnity of impressions of vis mortua.’ (Joseph E.
Hofman, DSB 8:151–2.)
Leibniz sent the Wrst part of the Mainz edition to Oldenburg on 11 March
1671 and his covering letter and the dedication to the Royal Society were read
at a meeting on 23 March 1671. Boyle, Wallis, Wren and Hooke were asked
to ‘peruse and consider’ the book and report back. Only Wallis and Hooke’s
reports were recorded at subsequent meetings: Wallis approved, Hooke,
characteristically, ‘was not satisWed with it’. The second part (dedicated to
the French Academy) was not sent to Oldenburg until 9 April.
The London edition was available by June or July – printed by the Royal
Society’s printer, but not under the Society’s imprimatur – and announced
by Oldenburg in the Philosophical transactions on 17 July (no. 73, pp. 2213–4).
Wallis’s reviews of each part were printed in later issues. Leibniz was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society two years later in 1673.
Heinekamp, Albert, ed. 300 Jahre “Nova methodus” von G.W. Leibniz (1684-
1984): Symposion der Leibniz-Gesellschaft im Congresscentrum “Leewenhorst” in
Noordwijkerhout (Niederlande), 28. bis 30. August 1984 (Stuttgart 1986).
120
LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von (1646–1716)
Nova methodus pro maximis & minimis, itemque tangentibus,
quae nec fractas, nec irrationales quantitates moratur, & singulare pro
illis calculi genus.
[with other papers by Leibniz, in a volume containing Acta Eruditorum
Vols III and IV].
Leipzig: J. Grossium & J.F. Gletitschium, 1684.