From the History of CosmologyWith a Special Emphasis on the Leibnizian Ideas
(A Talk delivered at TITEC, July 6, 2006)
Leibniz, at the last stage of his life, propounded a theory of monads, called Monadology. This may look like a strange theory (Russell called it a "fairy tale"), but Leibniz tried to solve, in one breath, both the problem of cosmology and the mind-body problem! In my talk, I will state only a brief comment on the latter problem, and concentrate on the former problem.
Leibniz's cosmology can be contrasted with Newton's cosmology based on the absolute space and time, and on the theory of universal gravitation. Many people may believe that Newton's attempt was far more successful than Leibniz's; indeed, they may just dismiss Leibniz's attempt as one of many unsuccessful episodes in the history of philosophy. However, we've got to be fair to a historical figure such as Newton and Leibniz. Their controversy on science and cosmology still has a strong relevance to the present science and cosmology. I will briefly show this, by reconstructing Leibnizian relational theory of space and time. And I will argue that some contemporary attempts should be regarded as an authentic successor of the Leibnizian project.
OUTLINE
1. What are Monads?
2. Causal Exclusion Problem
3. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
4. Newtonian Mechanics and Absolute Space and Time
5. Universal Gravitation
6. Cosmological Difficulties: why stable and scattered stars?
7. Newton's Solution requires "fine tuning", attirubuted to God's Will
8. Leibniz' Objections and his Scenario
9. What was the Obstacle to the Leibnizian Scenario?
10. Mach and Poincare: centrifugal force, inertia, and relative motion
11. Einstein overwhelmed a few Attempts of the Relational Dynamics
12. The Elements of the Relativity Theories
13. Newton vs. Mach, according to General Relativity
14. Both Newton and Mach partially vindicated
15. Frameless Dynamics: Barbour and the Leibnizian Ideas
16. Closing Remarks
Last modified July 5, 2006. (c) Soshichi Uchii