Leibniz: Journal Articles on Natural Philosophy

Richard T. W. Arthur is Professor Emeritus at McMaster University, Hamilton (Ontario), based in Toronto. He works in early modern natural philosophy and mathematics, and the foundations of physics, with special attention to the theory of time and the infinite. He holds degrees in physics (BA Oxford University, 1972) and philosophy (MA, McGill, 1976, PhD, Western Ontario, 1981). He has taught applied mathematics in Canada (UWO 1982-85), and philosophy in Nigeria (Calabar, 1981-82), the United States (Middlebury College, 1985-2002), Italy (Bologna 1998, Milan 2018), and Canada (McMaster, 2002-present). He is author of seven books and over 60 articles and book chapters.Translations by Jeffrey K. McDonough, Lea Schroeder, Samuel Levey, Richard T. W. Arthur, Richard Francks (with Roger Woolhouse), and Tzuchien Tho.

This expertly edited collection comprises 26 essays on natural philosophy that Leibniz published in European scholarly journals between 1682 and 1712...The book includes clear reproductions of the scientific diagrams published with the original articles.

• Introduction 1: A Unitary Principle of Optics, Catoptrics and Dioptrics [June 1682] 2: New Demonstrations Concerning the Resistance of Solids [July 1684] 3: A Brief Demonstration of a Notable Error by Descartes and others concerning a law of nature according to which they maintain that God always conserves the same quantity of motion in matter, a law which they also misuse in mechanics [March 1686] 4: A Brief Comment by the Abbé D. C., showing Mr. G. G. Leibniz the paralogism contained in the preceding objection [Abbé de Catelan, September 1686] 5: A Reply by Mr. L. to the Abbé D. C., contained in a letter written to the Editor of these Nouvelles on 9th January 1687, concerning what was said by Mr. Descartes: that God always conserves in nature the same quantity of motion [February 1687] 6: Comment by the Abbé D. C. on Mr. L s response with regard to Mr. Descartes s principle of mechanics; in Article 3 of these Nouvelles, February 1687 [Abbé de Catelan, June 1687] 7: Response by Mr. L. to the Comment by the Abbé D. C. in Article 1 of these Nouvelles for the month of June 1687, in which he attempted to defend a Law of Nature proposed by Mr. Descartes [September 1687] 8: On Optical Lines and other matters [January 1689] 9: A Sketch Concerning the Resistance of a Medium and the motion of heavy bodies projected in a resisting medium [January 1689] 10: An Essay on the Causes of the Celestial Motions [Tentamen de motuum coelestium causis] [February 1689] 11: Observations on the Cause of Gravity and its Properties [D. Papin, April 1689] 12: On the Isochronous Line along which a heavy body descends without acceleration, and on the controversy with the Abbé D. C. [April 1689] 13: On the Cause of Gravity, and a defence of the author s own view on the true laws of nature against the Cartesians [May 1690] 14: A Reply to the articles that the illustrious J. B. published in the May issue of these Acta [July 1690] 15: An Opinion about the Motive Forces of Mechanics, offered by D. Papin against the objections of the distinguished G. G. L. [D. Papin, January 1691] 16: Addition to the Sketch on the Resistance of the Medium published in these Acta in February 1689 [April 1691] 17: On the Line into which a flexible body curves itself under its own weight, and its remarkable usefulness for discovering any number of mean proportionals and logarithms, by the author G.G.L. [June 1691] 18: On Solutions to the Problem of the Catenary or Funicular, and to other problems proposed by Mr. I. B. in the Acta of June 1691 [September 1691] 19: On the Laws of Nature and true estimation of motive forces, against the Cartesians: a Reply to the arguments proposed by Mr. P. last January in these Acta, p. 6 [September 1691] 20: General Rule for the Composition of Motions [September 1693] 21: Two Problems Constructed by Mr. Leibniz, employing the general rule of the composition of motions that he just published [September 1693] 22: A Specimen of Dynamics, for the disclosing of the admirable laws of nature concerning the forces of bodies and their mutual actions, and reducing them to their causes [April 1695] 23: A Short Note on p. 357 ff. of the December Acta of 1695 [March 1696] 24: An Excerpt from a Letter of G. G. L. that he wrote to a friend in favour of his physical hypothesis about the motions of the planets, once inserted in these Acta (Febr. 1689) [October 1706] 25: Letters from Mr. von Leibniz to Mr. Hartsoeker, with the replies of Mr. Hartsoeker [March 1712] 26: Letter from Mr. von Leibniz to Mr. Hartsoeker, 12 July 1711 [April 1712]