Remarks on Space and Time in Newton, Leibniz, Euler and in Modern Physics

Abstract

The scientific ideas stated here and the few philosophical reflections, or to be more exact, the reflections made about philosophers, in this exposition, are intended as a contribution to the confrontation between sciences and philosophy. This confrontation has always seemed to me to be beneficial for both. Michel Ghins chose a topic where this confrontation is almost automatically present.2 “Space and time” is a theme which, since the systematic discovery of geometry by the Greeks, has always incited philosophers and scientific to think about the questions that this discovery posed and still poses. In the beginning of his systematic exposition of the Principia, Newton dedicates quite a long chapter to the problems posed by space and time in his new mechanics.

Given as a lecture on November 23, 1979 in the Sèminaire de Philosophie des Sciences and originally published as “Remarques sur l’espace et le temps chez Newton, Leibniz, Euler et dans la physique moderne,” Séminaire de Philosophie des Sciences 1979’1980 (Institut supérieur de philosophie, Université Catholique de Louvain) Rapport No. 15 (Louvain-la- Neuve: Cabay, 1980).