Article ID: CBB371767388

Newtonian Absolute Time vs Fluxional Time (2022)

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In this paper, I will first very briefly recall some features of Newtonian absolute, true, and mathematical time (absolute time, for short) as defined in the Principia. What I will try to do is to explain why Newton needed to resort to the idea of absolute time in his natural philosophy, and why he introduced this concept that -as we know from Einstein’s work- must actually be rejected in contemporary physics. I will then move on to consider the characterization of time employed in the method of fluxions, what I call “fluxional time”. Again, I will underline why Newton introduced this concept in his method of fluxions. He did so about two decades before writing the Principia, in a context that is quite different from the natural philosophy of force, acceleration and gravitation that was top of the agenda for the author of the Principia.

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Article Meropi Morfouli (2022) Introduction. Almagest (pp. 4-10). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Ducheyne, Steffen
Biener, Zvi
De Risi, Vincenzo
Dijksterhuis, Fokko Jan
Dolnick, Edward
Dijck, Maarten Van
Journals
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
British Journal for the History of Science
Foundations of Science
History of Science
Journal of the History of Ideas
Publishers
Oxford University Press
Springer
Carocci Editore
Edwin Mellen Press
Harper
Olms
Concepts
Time
Natural philosophy
Philosophy
Physics
Outer space
Motion (physical)
People
Newton, Isaac
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam
Boyle, Robert
Locke, John
Bélidor, Bernard Forest de
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
16th century
Medieval
Places
England
Great Britain
Europe
Netherlands
Institutions
Royal Society of London
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