HIST 2820 Lecture 2: Lecture 2, 3
Document Summary
Born at the end of renaissance, contributed to the. He enters cambridge university, studies logic, metaphysics, natural philosophy. There are no scientists until later on in the 19th century. Newton"s miraculous years, because he"s forced to stay home, discovered white light contains infinite colors, calculus, etc. Analogy - particles we think of are like the letters that make up a printing press. everything"s made of the same thing but you can break and form different things with it. Descartes cogito ergo sum (i think therefore i am) - the senses get it wrong all the time; cannot trust your senses. But you can trust that you are thinking. What makes us different from animals is that we have minds. Can only be moved to motion by spiritual elements. Problem with forces: action at a distanceno matter touching matter; somehow something moved; occult forcesnot part of mech phil according to descartes.
