What is the mechanical world picture?
2 days ago
- #mechanical philosophy
- #Aristotelianism
- #teleology
- The mechanical philosophy of the early modern period aimed to replace Aristotelian explanations with non-teleological, mathematically-based models.
- Dijksterhuis rejected the idea that the mechanical worldview is essentially about seeing nature as a machine, because machines imply teleology, which early moderns sought to avoid.
- A second interpretation—mechanistic explanation as uncovering hidden mechanisms—was also inadequate, as seen in Newton's account of gravity, which lacked a mechanism but was still considered mechanistic.
- A third interpretation, that mechanistic explanation is anti-animistic (rejecting internal principles), fails because some mechanistic explanations appeal to internal principles (e.g., inertia), while some Aristotelian explanations appeal to external ones.
- Dijksterhuis endorsed a fourth interpretation: the mechanization of the world picture is essentially a mathematization, focusing on mathematical laws governing motion.
- David Hull argued that mechanistic explanations historically meant excluding final causes and vital forces, making all modern scientific explanations mechanistic in a weak sense.
- Tim Crane linked the mechanical worldview to rejecting final causes and organic conceptions of nature, modeling everything on inorganic, non-teleological processes.
- The author suggests the mechanical worldview was primarily negative, aimed at rejecting Aristotelian concepts like substantial forms and intrinsic teleology, to enable prediction, control, and technological exploitation.
- The machine analogy was a useful model because machines lack substantial forms and intrinsic teleology, and their behavior is predictable and controllable.
- Over time, the mechanical worldview evolved to emphasize mathematization, while push-pull causation, hidden mechanisms, and the machine analogy itself became inessential.
- The reductionist, mechanistic view is effective for limited applications but problematic as a comprehensive worldview, leading to debates between ur-Platonism and ur-materialism over the reality of non-material aspects like meaning and free will.