TY - JOUR
AU - Meli, Domenico Bertoloni
AB - PATTERN S OF TRANSFORMATIO N IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTUR Y MECHANICS Introduction The seventeenth century witnessed striking transformations in the science of mechanics: whereas Renaissance authors of the previous century were primarily concerned with restoring and extending the achievements of Antiquity, following largely in the same track, seventeenth-century prac­ titioners brought mechanics to radically new domains, such as the mathematical investigation of motion in its many manifestations. I have recently argued that the objects or devices employed in the seventeenth century are a key tool for documenting and investigating such transfor­ mations in a way that reflects the contemporary practice of mathematicians and natural philosophers: levers, inclined planes, pendulums, springs, and strings were employed in a variety of fashions, both practical and theoret­ ical, to open new areas of research and conceptualize difficult problems. In this essay I wish to extend and refine my earlier reflections by identifying some patterns of transformation in this extraordinarily rich and complex area, studying similarities and differences in the creative and original methods employed by practitioners in exploring new domains. Such patterns are potentially fertile territory for bridging historical and philosophical themes having to do with research practices on the one hand, and methodological and 
TI - Patterns of Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Mechanics1
JF - The Monist
DO - 10.5840/monist201093433
DA - 2010-10-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/patterns-of-transformation-in-seventeenth-century-mechanics1-XzupFjW98U
SP - 580
EP - 597
VL - 93
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -