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The Classical Mechanistic Model
Modernity is marked by the appearance of the mechanistic view to nature.
Nature, in such an account, is composed of tiny microscopic indivisible atoms
that interact continuously according to laws of motion generating everything we
experience in nature. It is usually referred to the Newtonian Mechanics as the
most complete theoretical form of such a view.
Stathis Psillos defines the concept of mechanism as "any arrangement of
matter in motion, subject to the laws of mechanics". More specifically, he adds, it
was thought that all macroscopic phenomena were the product of the
interactions (ultimately, pushings and pullings) of microscopic corpuscles. The
latter were fully characterised by their primary qualities". 104
However, the mechanistic model of nature has never been introduced in a
complete formulation, even in the Newtonian version where the force of gravity
violates the principle of direct interaction. Instead, such a model has appeared
gradually with different versions. It was first introduced by figures such as
Descartes, Gassendi and Boyle in the seventeenth century as opposed to the
Aristotelian model in general, and to the teleological explanations, in particular.
In this period, the mechanistic view was a part of what is termed the corpuscular
theory of matter.
During the period of its early formulation, according to Stephen Gaukroger,
Gassendi set out the programme of the mechanistic view in broad terms as
follows: There is no effect without a cause; no cause acts without motion;
nothing acts on distant things except through itself or an organ or connection or
transmission; nothing moves unless it is touched, whether directly or through an
organ or through another body. 105
Stephen Gaukroger points out that the classical notion of 'Mechanism' existed in
many varieties, and that it is difficult to characterize in the abstract. However, he
construes in some detail, the ideal-type mechanism, in that period, as which has
the distinctive feature that it reduces all physical processes to the activity of inert
104 Psillos, Stathis. 2007, "Philosophy of Science A–Z", Edinburgh University Press, P. 149
105 Gaukroger, Stephen. 2006, "The Emergence of a Scientific Culture - Science and the Shaping of
Modernity, 1210–1685", Clarendon Press, Oxford, P. 253.
AL-MUKHATABAT Numéro 03 Année 01/2012 لىولأا ةن سلا 30 ددعلا تابطانا
120
ISSN: 1737-6432