Search results for "Newton's law"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
A Note on Laws of Motion for Aggregate Distributions
2020
I derive the law of motion for the aggregate distribution directly from the laws of motion for the individuals’ states. By relying on concepts from measure theory, the derivation is concise and intuitive. I address random shocks both at the micro level and at the macro level. Micro-level shocks completely cancel at the aggregate level provided that a law of large numbers applies. Therefore, the law of motion for the aggregate distribution is a deterministic process in the absence of macro-level uncertainty. If there are macro-level risks, the law of motion for the aggregate distribution exhibits a stochastic component additionally. I illustrate the formalism in a model of wealth accumulatio…
Universal Gravitation and the (Un)Intelligibility of Natural Philosophy
2019
This article centers on Hume's position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. To that end, the controversy surrounding universal gravitation shall be scrutinized. It is very well known that Hume sides with the Newtonian experimentalist approach rather than with the Leibnizian demand for intelligibility. However, what is not clear is Hume's overall position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. It shall be argued that Hume declines Leibniz's principle of intelligibility. However, Hume does not eschew intelligibility altogether; his concept of causation itself stipulates mechanical intelligibility. peerReviewed
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation and Hume's Conception of Causality
2013
This article investigates the relationship between Hume’s causal philosophy and Newton’s philosophy of nature. I claim that Newton’s experimentalist methodology in gravity research is an important background for understanding Hume’s conception of causality: Hume sees the relation of cause and effect as not being founded on a priori reasoning, similar to the way that Newton criticized non-empirical hypotheses about the properties of gravity. However, according to Hume’s criteria of causal inference, the law of universal gravitation is not a complete causal law, since it does not include a reference either to contiguity or to temporal priority. It is still argued that because of the empirical…
''Forward to the past''
2012
Carlini, Alessandro | Actis-Grosso, Rossana | Stucchi, Natale | Pozzo, Thierry; International audience; ''Our daily experience shows that the CNS is a highly efficient machine to predict the effect of actions into the future; are we so efficient also in reconstructing the past of an action? Previous studies demonstrated we are more effective in extrapolating the final position of a stimulus moving according to biological kinematic laws. Here we address the complementary question: are we more effective in extrapolating the starting position (SP) of a motion following a biological velocity profile? We presented a dot moving upward and corresponding to vertical arm movements that were masked i…