Abstract
This chapter concludes the three-part presentation of the central architectonic components of the dynamics. In this chapter, we examine the most important (and most explicit) principle of the dynamics. The equipollence of cause and effect, inherited from Scholastic thinkers but creatively reinvented by Leibniz, can be understood as the starting place of the dynamics project. In this chapter, we trace Leibniz’s different interpretations of this principle in order to move from a dynamics based on final causation (teleology) to that of formal cause (via the concept of actio). It is through this development that the very concept of vis matures in Leibniz. By examining this development, this chapter provides a fuller understanding of structural causation in the dynamics.
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Notes
- 1.
For a definitive comment on the abuse of statics, see Essay de dynamique (GM VI 218).
- 2.
- 3.
We note here, as in the second chapter, that inertial and non-inertial motion should not be confounded with inertial and non-inertial reference frames.
- 4.
See also Denis Papin 1689, 183–189.
- 5.
This reflection on identity and unity strictly refers to the metaphysical consequences internal to the development of the dynamics. There is no intention to understand this as superseding the many other reflections on the metaphysics of unity, identity and, simplicity that characterizes Leibniz’s profound and complex metaphysical itinerary. Of course, the role that the dynamics plays in this itinerary should not be underestimated.
- 6.
Leibniz provides a clear exposition of this position in article viii of the Discours (GP IV 432–433; AG 40–41). The axiom comes directly from Thomas Aquinas , ST II-II 58, Art. 2.
Bibliography
2. Other Texts of G.W. Leibniz (Not Cited by Abbreviation)
Leibniz, G.W. 1994. Leibniz: La réforme de la dynamique. Ed. Michel Fichant. Paris: Vrin.
II. Texts by Other Authors
Duchesneau, François. 1994. La Dynamique de Leibniz. Paris: Vrin.
Duchesneau, François. 1998. Leibniz’s Theoretical Shift in the Phoranomus and Dynamica de Potentia. Perspectives on Science 6 (1–2): 77–109.
Garber, Daniel. 2009. Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Papin, Denis. 1689. De gravitatis causa et proprietatibus observationes. Acta Eruditorum: 183–189.
Wallis, John. 1670. De Mechanica: sive, De motu, tractatus geometricus. London: Gulielmi Godbit.
Wallis, John. 1695. Opera Mathematica Vol. I. Oxford: E. Theatro Sheldoniano.
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Tho, T. (2017). The Changing Concept of the Equipollence of Cause and Effect. In: Vis Vim Vi: Declinations of Force in Leibniz’s Dynamics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59055-4_5
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