Philosophy and the Foundations of Dynamics

Lawrence Sklar is the Carl G. Hempel and William K. Frankena Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Space, Time and Spacetime (1992), Philosophy of Physics (1992), Physics of Chance (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Theory and Truth (2000).

• 1. Introduction; 2. The prehistory of classical dynamics; 3. The astronomical revolution; 4. Precursors to Newtonian dynamics; 5. The Newtonian synthesis; 6. Philosophical aspects of the Newtonian synthesis; 7. The history of statics; 8. The development of dynamics after Newton; 9. The 'Newtonian' approach after Newton; 10. From virtual work to Lagrange's equation; 11. Extremal principles; 12. Some philosophical reflections on explanation and theory; 13. Conservation principles; 14. Hamilton's equations; 15. Canonical transformations, optical analogies and algebraic structures; 16. The search for new foundations; 17. New directions in the applications of dynamics; 18. Spacetime formulations of Newtonian dynamics; 19. Formalizations: mass and force; 20. Relationist dynamics; 21. Modes of explanation; 22. Retrospective and conclusions.

'This work could be as influential in the 21st century as Ernst Mach's Die Mechanik (1901) was in the 20th, both in physics and philosophy … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty.' P. D. Skiff, Choice