Commentators often claim that the bodies of Spinoza’s physics resist the changes they undergo. But it’s not always clear what they mean when they say this, or whether they are entitled to say it. This article clarifies what it might mean to for Spinoza’s bodies to resist change, and examines the evidence for such a view. In the first half, the author argues that there is some limited evidence for such a view, but not nearly as much as people think. In the second half, the author proposes looking for a mental analogue to collision in the realm of ideas and argues that adequacy amounts to a meaningful concept of resistance in Spinoza, albeit one that is incomplete.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Roux, Sophie;
(2006)
Découvrir le principe d'inertie
(/isis/citation/CBB001024285/)
Article
Buzon, Frédéric de;
(2005)
Repos ou mouvement conspirant: Leibniz et les articles 54 et 55 de la partie II des Principia philosophiae
(/isis/citation/CBB000670891/)
Article
Elazar, Michael;
(2008)
Honoré Fabri and the Trojan Horse of Inertia
(/isis/citation/CBB000831739/)
Article
Carla Rita Palmerino;
(2022)
From Active Matter to Inertia, from Celerity to Slowness: the Motion of Atoms and of Compound Bodies in Gassendi’s Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB352728199/)
Chapter
Couloubaritsis, Lambros;
(2007)
Purification par Baliani de la théorie ancienne du mouvement et généralisation du principe d'inertie
(/isis/citation/CBB001022507/)
Thesis
Robinson, Thaddeus Steven;
(2007)
Spinoza and the Metaphysics of Mechanism
(/isis/citation/CBB001561336/)
Article
Gattei, Stefano;
(2013)
Galileo and Tennis: Reconciling the New Physics with Commonsense
(/isis/citation/CBB001252889/)
Article
Federico Boccaccini;
Anna Marmodoro;
(2017)
Powers, Abilities and Skills in Early Modern Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB647362818/)
Book
Nachtomy, Ohad;
Smith, Justin E. H.;
(2014)
The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001551476/)
Book
Woolhouse, R.S.;
(1993)
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz: The concept of substance in 17th-century metaphysics
(/isis/citation/CBB000047297/)
Article
Yamada, Toshihiro;
(2003)
Stenonian Revolution or Leibnizian Revival? Constructing Geo-History in the Seventeenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000774898/)
Book
Huenemann, Charlie;
(2008)
Understanding Rationalism
(/isis/citation/CBB000950265/)
Thesis
Christopher P. Noble;
(2016)
The Soul as Spiritual Automaton in Leibniz's Synthetic Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB700001563/)
Chapter
Garber, Daniel;
(2013)
God, Laws, and the Order of Nature: Descartes and Leibniz, Hobbes, and Spinoza
(/isis/citation/CBB001553039/)
Article
Hyslop, Scott J.;
(2014)
Algebraic Collisions
(/isis/citation/CBB001201189/)
Article
Schmaltz, Tad M.;
(2003)
Cartesian Causation: Body--Body Interaction, Motion, and Eternal Truths
(/isis/citation/CBB000340900/)
Article
Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan;
(2013)
Jeu de Paume and Jeux de la Raison in Seventeenth-Century Optics
(/isis/citation/CBB001252891/)
Article
Gorham, Geoffrey;
(2005)
The Metaphysical Roots of Cartesian Physics: The Law of Rectilinear Motion
(/isis/citation/CBB000640507/)
Article
Andrew Janiak;
(2015)
Space and Motion in Nature and Scripture: Galileo, Descartes, Newton
(/isis/citation/CBB462811041/)
Article
Dyck, Maarten Van;
Verelst, Karin;
(2013)
“Whatever Is Neither Everywhere Nor Anywhere Does Not Exist”: The Concepts of Space and Time in Newton and Leibniz
(/isis/citation/CBB001320861/)
Be the first to comment!