engleski

Was Patricius Important for the Development of the Concept of Force in the Kepler's and Newton's Theories of Gravitation?

In M. Jammer's famous book, Concepts of Force, (Dover, 1999 ; an unaltered republication of the first edition, published in 1957 by the Harvard Press) the name of “ Franciscus Patricius” and his treatise on tides are mentioned on page 83. Patricius' treatise had been of a primary importance for Kepler in his attempts of formulating universal character of attraction, which is rigorously asserted to Newton only. Jammer wrote a special Preface to Dover's edition, where a comparison between the metaphysical notions of the force against the scientific concept of the force was described in a brilliant way. The emphasis was put on the fact that four natural forces within the standard model describe interactions between particles with masses and/or field particles, which is ontologically less demanding with respect to the classical term of the force in Newtonian physics. Jammer's preface and book itself should be taken as the new impacts for studying Patricius natural philosophy, particularly for trying to identify the initial notions of motion and force in his work. In the Aristotelian time and afterwards, a motion of the surface of seas and oceans (tide, i.e. flood tide and ebb tide) was not yet understood or had not received any satisfactory explanations. Patricius himself used the more appropriate terms: flowing to (affluxus) for the floods and flowing back (refluxus) for the ebbs, against the standard terms of his time such as approach to (accesus) and receding (recessus). Patricius has phenomenologically described a variety of the sea level trends in various seas (from internal seas like those of the Mediterranean Sea, external seas of the oceans, open seas of the so called Old and New World, up to the seas of Gulf of Mexico) in accord with the methods of natural sciences. His basic motivation was to develop the knowledge of causes for the rise and fall of the sea surface. The 28th Book of Patricius’ Pancosmia was entirely devoted to the classification of the sea motion according to the tidal observations of the time of Patricius. The ordering of tidal causes, based on the unique Patricius method which combined both metaphysical and scientific line of approach, was developed in the 29th Book. Among more than 20 causes, Patricius identified the attraction of the Moon and Sun as the first two general tidal causes. Particularly, their respective positions in the sky, as well as the influence of the Moon's and Sun's Light on the tides. Patricius also put the name of the Iadertina's scholar, F. Chrysogonus, to the pioneers of the phenomenological theories of the tides, by selecting him from the series of researchers of the tides, what had also been mentioned by M. Jammer on page 83. In the oral presentation, an evaluation of the question of importance of the Patricius’ method of classification of the tidal causes at all, for the Kepler's theory of planetary motions and for the later Newton's general theory of gravitation, will be examined. There will be an attempt to answer – with no conceptual adjustment – the question of importance of Patricius for the scientific key concepts of motion and force (Newton, Euler).

flood tide (flowing to) and ebb tide (flowing back); Patricius' phenomenological theory of tide; Kepler's and Newton's theories; motion and force

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