Even in ancient times, in the time of Plato, repeated attempts were made to comprehend and understand the processes occurring outside of a person and in himself. Due to insufficient knowledge and understanding, many things were attributed to supernatural manifestations. Over time, the accumulated knowledge has led to a better understanding of the existing processes and relationships in nature.
The history of the formation of a mechanistic picture of the world
The path of knowledge formation was thorny. The general understanding of the laws of existence and the readiness of mankind of that time to accept or reject a certain view of the world played a big role.
An important role was played in the Middle Ages by religion, suppressing any attempts at a scientific approach to understanding the world around us. All actions that contradicted the dogmas of the church were anathematized and eradicated. A huge number of great minds were burned at the stake of the Roman Inquisition. And only in the 17-18 century, under pressurereal evidence, the mechanistic picture of the world began to be popularized quite seriously. During this period, the first serious attempts were made to systematize and process the accumulated research and works of past eras of mankind. Thanks to a new understanding of the organization of the world, the widespread use and implementation of the acquired knowledge at a practical level in production and everyday life has become possible.
Society and understanding of nature
The formation of a mechanistic picture of the world contributed to the rapid technological development of society. However, it took a long time to implement it.
First of all, this was due to the psychological readiness of society to accept a new way of understanding the foundations of the universe. The creation of a mechanistic picture of the world and its complete formation lasted about two hundred years, until the middle of the nineteenth century.
Under the influence of philosophers, thinkers and naturalists of previous eras, such as Democritus, Aristotle, Lucretius and Epicurus, the understanding and acceptance of the materialistic approach gradually came.
The accumulated knowledge in the field of mathematics, physics, chemistry showed the differences and features of the mechanistic picture of the world from the existing understanding of the laws of the Universe at that time.
The writings of Aristotle and Ptolemy at that time were not accurate. However, these were the first attempts to comprehend and understand what the mechanistic picture of the world is.
Beginning of the era of the mechanistic picture of the world
A little later, at 16century, another surge of scientific thought and resonance in society were caused by the works "On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres" by Nicolaus Copernicus. His followers saw rationality and relevance in the scientific approach to the study of the surrounding world. Subsequently, on the basis of the works of Copernicus and Galileo, a new era of worldview was born.
The process of creating a mechanistic picture of the world and its formation was greatly influenced by the French scientist Rene Descartes. The area of his knowledge was quite wide, he worked in the field of physics, mathematics, philosophy and biology. The religious education of the young Rene did not become an obstacle in the development of knowledge, and he was able to become one of the creators of a new understanding of the structure of the world.
The philosopher and scientist spent about seven years wandering around Europe in the seventeenth century, accumulating life impressions and reflecting on the philosophical and mathematical problems of that era.
Descartes achieved significant success in the field of mathematics. His achievements are reflected in the famous work "Geometry", published in 1637. It was this scientific work that laid all the foundations of modern geometry. René is also responsible for the introduction of symbolism into algebra. His works had a key influence on the development of mathematics in the future. In 1644, a French scientist and philosopher gave his definition of the origin and further development of the world and the surrounding nature.
In his opinion, the solar system and the planets were formed from material whirlwinds revolving around the sun. He believed that in order to separate the body from the environmentdifferent speeds are required. And the boundary of the body becomes real if the body moves, and this determines its shape and size. He reduced all formulas and definitions to the mechanical movement of bodies. A strange definition, given the knowledge available to us now, is not it? But that was the view of some scientists of the time.
Newton's opinion about processes in nature and the Universe
The creator of the mechanistic picture of the world, Isaac Newton, had a somewhat different opinion. He was a mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer. This scientist made all his conclusions on the basis of the experiments, carefully studying them. His main credo was the phrase “I do not invent hypotheses!” An important scientific achievement of Newton was the creation of a theory of the motion of planets and celestial spheres.
The discovery of universal gravitation connected with this work formed the basis for a full-fledged substantiation of the heliocentric system. Newton's mechanistic picture of the world turned out to be more accurate and productive.
In 1688, the Glorious Revolution took place in England. The country during this period experienced powerful political ferment from a monarchy to a complete analogue of communism. However, despite the vicissitudes of life, the great scientist and philosopher continued to work on philosophical works on the structure of the world.
Philosophy and science of the past
Newton's mechanistic picture of the world has come a thorny and difficult path. In the process of writing the last part of his work, he declared: “The third part I now intend to eliminate, philosophy -this is the same impudent lady, dealing with which is tantamount to being involved in a lawsuit. Eventually, his Principia Mathematica of Natural Philosophy was published (in 1687). This system has received universal approval and has become a well-established theory.
In the work of Newton, the rationale for the works of Copernicus on the movement of planets around the Sun is given. The final work of the scientist was the three laws that completed the work of Descartes, Galileo and Huygens and other great minds of that time, thereby determining the further creation of a mechanistic picture of the world and understanding of processes in nature.
In general, the ideas about the world around us in the seventeenth century were a picture of the once created and unchanging world of the Universe.
Newton considered space to be the receptacle of all objects, and time to be the duration of processes in it. Space was considered infinite and unchanging in time.
Newton's three laws in the modern world
The scientist conducted many experiments on physical processes between bodies. In the course of his work, he deduced three laws that we still use today.
The first one says that it is the force that acts as the cause of the acceleration of the body. All processes in the world tend to accelerate objects and are the cause of the interaction of bodies.
The second law determines that the action of a force on an object at a certain moment and at a given point changes its speed, which can be calculated.
The third law says that the action of bodies on each othereach other is equal in strength and opposite in direction.
This was the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world. Space, time were not connected with each other, they existed as isolated phenomena. However, the definitions of I. Newton served as an impetus for a change in worldview and a complete transition to a complete picture of the relationship between space and time.
Is the understanding of the nature of space and time correct?
Two hundred years later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein noted that the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world about matter and space can only be interpreted within the limits of the ordinary, familiar world.
On a cosmic scale, the presented laws do not work and require rethinking. Subsequently, the scientist developed the theory of relativity, which combined space and time into a single system.
However, this is not the only area where Newton's laws do not apply. With the advent of the era of the study of elementary particles and the peculiarities of their behavior, it became clear that completely different rules apply in this area. They are extremely peculiar, sometimes unpredictable and can violate our usual understanding of time and space.
The expression in scientific circles that quantum physics cannot be understood, it can only be believed in, wonderfully explains the discrepancy between ideas about the world and all the processes taking place in it at the subatomic level.
Cause and effect
In the process of becoming materialisticunderstanding of the surrounding nature, the Newtonian mechanistic picture of the world determined the further course of the history of human development. Technology and the development of civilization are closely related to previous accumulated experience and owe the past its strong present and formed picture of the perception of the world.
