Mechanistic picture of the world of Newton

Even in ancient times, during the time of Plato, repeated attempts were made to understand and understand the processes taking place outside of man and in himself. Because of lack of knowledge and understanding, many were considered supernatural manifestations. Over time, accumulated knowledge led to a more complete understanding of existing processes and relationships in nature.

History of the formation of a mechanistic picture of the world

The way of formation of knowledge was thorny. A great role was played by the universal understanding of the laws of being and the readiness of mankind at that time to accept or reject a definite view of the world. An important role played in the Middle Ages religion, suppressing any attempt at a scientific approach to knowledge of the surrounding world. All kinds of actions that contradicted the dogmas of the church were anathema and eradicated. A great number of great minds were burned on the bonfires of the Roman Inquisition. And only in the 17th and 18th century, under the pressure of real evidence, the mechanistic picture of the world began to be popularized quite seriously. During this period, the first serious attempts were made to systematize and process the accumulated research and work of the past epochs of mankind. Thanks to a new understanding of the organization of the world, it became possible to use the knowledge gained at the practical level throughout the production and everyday life.

Society and understanding of nature

The formation of a mechanistic picture of the world contributed to the rapid technological development of society. However, it took a long time to implement it. First of all, this was due to the psychological readiness of society to adopt a new way of understanding the foundations of the universe. The creation of a mechanistic picture of the world and its full formation lasted about two hundred years, until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Under the influence of philosophers, thinkers and naturalists of previous eras, such as Democritus, Aristotle, Lucretius and Epicurus, the understanding and acceptance of the materialist approach gradually came about.

Accumulated knowledge in the field of mathematics, physics, chemistry showed the differences and features of the mechanistic picture of the world from the existing understanding of the laws of the universe for that period.

The works of Aristotle and Ptolemy at that time were not exact. However, these were the first attempts to understand and understand what the mechanistic picture of the world is.

The beginning of the epoch of the mechanistic picture

Somewhat later, in the 16th century, another surge of scientific thought and resonance in society was caused by the works "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" by Nicolaus Copernicus. His followers saw rationality and relevance in the scientific approach to the exploration of the surrounding world. Subsequently, on the basis of the works of Copernicus and Galileo, a new epoch of worldview was born.

The process of creating a mechanistic picture of the world and its formation was greatly influenced by the French scientist Rene Descartes. His field of knowledge was wide enough, he worked in the field of physics, mathematics, philosophy and biology. The religious education of the young René did not become a hindrance to mastering knowledge, and he was able to become one of the creators of a new understanding of the structure of the world.

For about seven years the philosopher and scientist spent in wandering around seventeenth-century Europe, accumulating life impressions and reflecting on the philosophical and mathematical problems of that era.

Significant successes Descartes achieved in the field of mathematics. His achievements are reflected in the well-known work "Geometry", published in 1637. It was this scientific work that laid the foundation for modern geometry. Rene also belongs to the introduction of symbolism in algebra. His works had a key influence on the development of mathematics in the future. In 1644 the French scientist and philosopher gave his definition of the birth and further development of the world and surrounding nature.

In his opinion, the solar system and planets were formed from material vortices revolving around the Sun. He believed that the separation of the body from the environment requires the presence of different speeds of movement. And the boundary of the body becomes real if the body moves, and this determines its shape and dimensions. All the formulas and definitions he reduced to the mechanical displacement of bodies. A strange definition, given the knowledge we now have, is not it? But that was the view of some scientists of the time.

Newton's opinion on the processes in nature and the universe

A somewhat different opinion was held by the creator of the mechanistic picture of the world - Isaac Newton. He was a mathematician, a physicist, a philosopher and an astronomer. All this conclusion his learned husband made on the basis of the conducted experiments, carefully studying them. His main credo was the phrase "I do not invent a hypothesis!" An important scientific achievement of Newton was the creation of a theory of the motion of planets and celestial spheres. The discovery of universal gravitation connected with this work laid the foundation for a full-fledged justification of the heliocentric system. The mechanistic picture of the world of Newton proved to be more precise and effective.

In 1688 in England there was a glorious revolution. The country during this period experienced a powerful political ferment from the monarchy to the complete analogue of communism. However, despite the vicissitudes of life, the great scientist and philosopher continued to work on philosophical works on the structure of the world.

Philosophy and Science of the Past

The mechanistic picture of the world of Newton went through a thorny and difficult path. In the process of writing the last part of his work, he said: "The third part I intend now to eliminate, philosophy is the same impudent lady, dealing with which amounts to involvement in litigation." In the end, he came out in the light of his "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (in 1687). This system received general approval and became a solid generally accepted theory.

Newton's work provides a justification for the works of Copernicus on the motion of planets around the Sun. The final work of the scientist was three laws, concluding the work of Descartes, Galileo and Huygens and other great minds of the time, thereby defining the further creation of a mechanistic picture of the world and understanding of processes in nature.

In general, the concept of the surrounding world in the seventeenth century was a picture of the once created and unchanging world of the universe. Newton considered space a container of all objects, and time - the duration of the processes in it. The space was considered to be infinite and unchanging in time.

Three laws of Newton in the modern world

A lot of experiments the scientist carried out over the physical processes between the bodies. In the course of his work, he derived three laws, which we are using now.
The first says that it is the force that acts as the cause of the acceleration of the body. All processes in the world tend to accelerate objects and are the cause of the interaction of bodies.

The second law determines that the action of force on an object at a certain moment and at a given point changes its speed, which can be calculated.

The third law says that the action of bodies on each other is equivalent in strength and opposite in direction.

This was the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world. Space, time did not communicate with each other, existed as isolated phenomena. However, the definitions of I. Newton served as an impetus to change the world outlook and complete transition to a full picture of the relationship between space and time.

Is the understanding of the nature of space and time correct?

Two hundred years later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein noted that the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world about matter and space can be interpreted only within the ordinary, familiar world. On a cosmic scale, the presented laws do not work and require rethinking. Later, the scientist developed the theory of relativity, which combined space and time into a single system.

However, this is not the only area where Newton's laws do not have their application. With the onset of the era of studying elementary particles and the peculiarities of their behavior, it became clear that in this sphere completely different rules operate. They are extremely original, at times unpredictable and can break our habitual understanding of time and space.

The existing expression in scientific circles that quantum physics can not be understood, one can only believe in it, remarkably explain the inconsistency of ideas about the world with all the processes taking place in it at the subatomic level.

Cause and investigation

In the process of the formation of a materialistic understanding of the surrounding nature, the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world determined the further course of the history of the development of mankind. Technology and the development of civilization are closely related to the previous accumulated experience and are obliged to the past by their strong present and formed picture of the perception of the world.