What was Mechanical about Mechanics: The Concept of Force between Metaphysics and Mechanics from Newton to Lagrange

J. CHRISTIAAN BOUDRI, What was Mechanical about Mechanics: The Concept of Force between Metaphysics and Mechanics from Newton to Lagrange. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 224. Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002. Pp. xvi + 276. ISBN 1-4020-0233-5. £75.00, $112.00, euro112.00 (hardback).

DOI: 10.1017/S0007087404286174

The concept of force has been the object of prolonged disputes since the publication of Newton's Principia in 1687. In this book, which is an elaboration of a doctoral dissertation written at Twente University under the supervision of Floris Cohen, J. Christiaan Boudri deals with some chapters of a controversy which began in the heated context of the Newton-Leibniz dispute. Boudri aims at showing that metaphysics played a guiding role in the development of eighteenth-century mechanics. Consequently, he devotes attention to controversies concerning foundational issues rather than technicalities. Boudri concentrates on three topics: the controversy over the conservation law initiated by Leibniz's writings against the Cartesians (1686-1743), the discussion of the nature of the principle of least...