Babeș Ovidiu
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Stud Hist Philos Sci. 2025 Feb;109:58-71. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.12.003. Epub 2024 Dec 27.
Descartes' systematic physics had little to do with his quantitative accounts of natural phenomena. The former was metaphysical and was concerned with uncovering the causes operating in nature, while the latter dealt with establishing mathematical relations between various natural quantities. I reconstruct a dominant interpretation in recent literature which argues that the two practices are autonomous, and that quantitative problem-solving is normatively subordinated to metaphysical physics. However, a substantial episode of Descartes' practice resists these claims in an interesting way. Descartes' 1643 explanation of the flow of water should be, on the above reading, autonomous from metaphysically grounded physics or matter theory. Yet the explanation had unifying intentions: It is explicitly based on Descartes' laws of motion and considers the material properties of water. Additionally, because quantitative problem-solving should be subordinated to systematic physics, we would expect that Descartes' explanation is coherent with his physics of liquids. However, if we search for such a coherence, the autonomy between the two practices resurfaces as a problem. Even on a charitable reading, the physical features assumed and modelled in the 1643 explanation cannot be accounted for by Descartes' systematic physics. They are simply underdetermined in his natural philosophy. The outcome is that Descartes' quantitative solution navigated its way around the physical constraints in a creative and opportunistic fashion.
笛卡尔的系统物理学与他对自然现象的定量描述几乎没有关系。前者是形而上学的，关注揭示自然界中起作用的原因，而后者则致力于建立各种自然量之间的数学关系。我重构了近期文献中的一种主流解释，该解释认为这两种实践是自主的，并且定量问题解决在规范上从属于形而上学物理学。然而，笛卡尔实践中的一个重要片段以一种有趣的方式抵制了这些观点。按照上述解读，笛卡尔在1643年对水流的解释应该独立于基于形而上学的物理学或物质理论。然而，该解释具有统一的意图：它明确基于笛卡尔的运动定律，并考虑了水的物质属性。此外，由于定量问题解决应该从属于系统物理学，我们会期望笛卡尔的解释与他的液体物理学相一致。然而，如果我们寻找这种一致性，这两种实践之间的自主性又会重新成为一个问题。即使从宽容的解读来看，1643年的解释中所假设和建模的物理特征也无法用笛卡尔的系统物理学来解释。它们在他的自然哲学中根本没有得到充分的确定。结果是，笛卡尔的定量解决方案以一种创造性和机会主义的方式绕过了物理限制。
