Boyle, Mechanical Philosophy
Class Notes (some from Kate)
- Mechanical Principles: intelligible & clear
- world operates on 2 principles, matter & motion
- matter & motion are the simplest things we can conceive
- (for something to be true, it has to be simple & cohesive)
- qualities such as size, shape, connection
- Corporeal phenomena
Summary
Boyle wrote about mechanical principles, and the ways we make sense of mechanics. He says that the most basic principles of everything are matter and motion. Everything that can be said mechanically about an object boils down to these two. And any changes that happen to a body can only happen physically through mechanical principles.