Berlin 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 2: Philosophy of Science

AGPhil 2.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 17. März 2015, 17:00–17:30, A 060

Reid’s Foundation of the Geometry of Visibles — •Dieter Suisky — Humboldt University Berlin, dsuisky@physik.hu-berlin.de

It is well-known that the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid (1710-1796) traced back his methodology to the rules which had been established by Bacon and Newton, especially Newton’s regulae philosophandi which ”are maxims practised every day in common life”. Analyzing Reid’s Geometry of Visibles (GOV), there is another corner stone being of Newtonian origin which had not been regarded to be equally important for the interpretation of Reid’s theory. It is Newton’s natural philosophy whose role in Reid’s new approach to geometry had been only little investigated until now. In this contribution it will be argued that there are two forms of non-Euclidean geometry which may be distinguished according to their historically determinate difference: (i) the Proclus-Barrow-Newton version which is related to idea that the geometrical objects are generated by a continual flux and (ii) the Lambert-Gauß-Lobatschewsky-Bolyai version which is related to the definition and investigation of parallel lines. Reid’s GOV is currently, however, preferentially interpreted in terms of the second version which was unknown to Reid. It will be demonstrated that Reid made use advantageously of Newton’s foundation who considered geometrical objects to be ”generated by a continual motion”. Reid also accentuated the temporal features. ”Prop. 1. Every right line being produced, will at last return into itself.” This idea is sufficient to establish a non-Euclidean version which is related to the interior of a sphere whereas it is incompatible with the geometry of an infinite plane.