1.º Seminário Conjunto CFCUL / Rede Ibérica de Filosofia das Ciências, por María de Paz (Universidade de Sevilha).

It is well known that one of the obscurities in Newton’s natural philosophy is the way gravitation is transmitted. Although Newton claimed to not feign hypotheses to explain this issue, this did not prevent some of his successors from doing it. The aim of this talk is to explore two particular approaches to gravitation in the 18th century: that of the famous mathematician Leonhard Euler and that of a forgotten figure, Georges Louis Le Sage. Both natural philosophers were well aware of Newton’s work in this topic and both were against an action-at-a distance approach. However, their solutions, although they could be regarded as action-in-contact approaches, are quite different in several respects. The metaphysical foundations in which they are based, the physical consequences, the mathematical approach and the methodology they developed are some of the topics we will present. By discussing approaches that today are no longer considered, we aim to show that the development of classical mechanics in the Eighteenth Century is far from that of a period of ‘normal’ science. Several authors were in fact discussing the foundations of science in metaphysical, physical, mathematical and methodological respects, although they all took into account Newton’s work. By providing alternative approaches to natural philosophy they all contributed to develop concepts in order to handle problems and understand the way nature works.

Transmissão via Zoom (pw: 480561).