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