Mechanism (philosophy)

In philosophy, the mechanism is a design which perceives the majority of the Phénomène S following the Modèle of the Cause and effect links

The mechanism corresponds to a scientific Révolution , often called Révolution copernician in language running, occurred mainly at the 17th century, in Astronomie, Physique, Médecine and in good of other intellectual disciplines more or less far away from the Science, according to the modern meaning of the term, and whose consequences were felt until the 19th century.

A model of scientific explanation

The mechanism at the 17th century aims at reducing all the physical phenomena to shocks between particles having very simple mechanical properties such as perfect elasticity, sphericity,… Thus the temperature of a system corresponds to the mean velocity of the particles which compose it, the pressure with the shock of these particles against the border of the system,… the mechanist explanation thus does not leave any mystery on the cause-effect relations: they are shocks whose laws are perfectly known and express the conservation of the momentum. Having raised the hope to include/understand the nature of the causal nexus, it constitutes a model indépassable satisfactory scientific explanation for the spirit.

On a philosophical level, the father Marin Mersenne, who was in the center of a network of correspondence with Rene Descartes and other large scientists and philosophers of this time, supported this type of explanation. Marin Mersenne is the author of the work Questions about the Genesis (1623), in which he criticized several of his contemporaries violently, and in particular the Christian Kabbale. In addition, it is Marin Mersenne which collected the objections with the Méditations on philosophy first of Descartes in 1640. Robert Lenoble estimates that Marin Mersenne is, with Descartes, at the origin of the mechanism.

This philosophy led to the theory of the Animal-machine of Rene Descartes, and to a design often Déterministe of the Causalité: same the Cause S produces the same effects (one often forgets the beginning of the proposal: under the same conditions).

The mechanism had considerable consequences, in all the fields of the Pensée. It influenced in particular philosophies Positiviste S and Matérialiste S.

The mechanism in medicine

The Théorie of the Animal-machine of Rene Descartes had the important ones reflected on the medical Pensée and the emergence of a Médecine mechanist, then of a scientific Médecine.

According to the Medicine mechanist, the pathological phenomena observed by the doctor can be explained by physical causes.

It profited at the 18th century from the vogue from the animal automats and the automats anthopomorphes, like the automat of Vaucanson.

The mechanism of the vital processes was théroisé by the doctor Libertin Julien Offray of Mettrie (1709 - 1751) in its work the Machine man (1747). It extends to the man the principle of the Animal-machine of Descartes and rejects by there any form of Dualisme animal-man with the profit of the Monisme. This Déterminisme mechanist leads it to reject any idea of God, even that of the deists, with which he refuses to confuse the Nature.

The Médecine mechanist is opposed to the Vitalisme and the vitalistic Médecine, represented in France by the École of Montpellier. Indeed, according to vitalism, the vital phenomena cannot be reduced to a whole of physical phenomena, defining a specificity of the Vivant.

Characteristics

The two main features of this change, within the meaning of Bachelard, are a destruction of the idea of Cosmos (arranged hierarchically in spheres, Lowland with the Celestial Higher realms confining with divine), and a infinitisation of the world.

Altogether, it is the vision of the world, its structure and its place in the Universe, which changes rather abruptly. Like any important upheaval, the revolution mechanist has his history, which mixes Science, Philosophie and Théologie, operating a transition between the Renaissance and the Lumières.

This change led to the discredit of the school Scolastique, abundantly décriée by Descartes, and with a radical criticism of the philosopie of Aristote on which rested, partly, the scholastic.

End of the mechanism

Unfortunately, the theories purely mechanists, like that of Descartes, never managed to explain and envisage correctly the phenomena related to the gravitation, contrary to the Newtonian theory which admits the idea (enough mysterious besides) of remote action.

In addition, one noted with the elementary Interactions are four: in addition to the Gravitation, there are also the strong Interaction, the electromagnetic Interaction, and the weak Interaction.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

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