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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.

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