This translation process usually entails some irreparable loss of content, but also perhaps some gain in new intuitions which (if so) could yield greater conceptual enrichment of the debates involved and, consequently, a broader vision regarding the nature of precisely such problems. Against this backdrop, this paper introduces three significant additions: 1) It formulates for the first time a limit postulate for systematically addressing infinite systems 2) It shows that an Aristotelian unmoved mover (with no supertask) is possible in systems of infinitely many particles that interact with each other solely by contact collision 3) It shows how interaction at a distance can emerge in systems of infinitely many particles (at relative rest) that interact with each other solely by contact.Īttempting to model classical problems in philosophy in a detailed and precise way by making use of physical and/or mathematical theories, whose formal structure is reasonably well understood, is an expeditious and intellectually stimulating task. Numerous minor variations on the original schemes have already been published.
It has long been acknowledged in the existing literature that, theoretically, in infinite Newtonian systems, masses can move from rest to motion through supertasks. The process presents a more precise characterization of the crucial going-to-the-limit operation (which will admittedly require further development in future research). The unmoved mover model proposed does not involve supertasks, and (perhaps precisely for this reason) leads both to an outrageous form of indeterminism and a new, accountable form of interaction.
Here I show that the essential attribute of an unmoved mover (in a non-trivial sense, and in the context of infinite systems theory) is not incompatible with such mechanics quite the contrary, it makes this possible. It is common knowledge that the Aristotelian idea of an unmoved mover (Primum Mobile) was abandoned definitively (from a mechanical standpoint, at least) with the advent of modern science and, in particular, Newton’s precise formulation of mechanics.
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