Pitts, J. Brian http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7299-5137
Funding for this research was provided by:
John Templeton Foundation (60745)
Article History
Received: 15 January 2019
Revised: 7 June 2019
Accepted: 27 June 2019
First Online: 31 July 2019
Change Date: 4 April 2022
Change Type: Update
Change Details: Springer Nature’s version of this paper was updated to set this text as a quote: "two important truths on this subject have been discovered since M. Descartes’ day. The first is that the quantity of absolute force which is in fact conserved is different from the quantity of movement, as I have demonstrated elsewhere. The second discovery is that the same direction is still conserved in all bodies together that are assumed as interacting, in whatever way they come into collision. If this rule had been known to M. Descartes, he would have taken the direction of bodies to be as independent of the soul as their force; and I believe that that would have led direct [sic] to the Hypothesis of Pre-established Harmony, whither these same rules have led me. For apart from the fact that the physical influence of one of these substances on the other is inexplicable, I recognized that without a complete derangement of the laws of Nature the soul could not act physically upon the body (Leibniz 1985, p. 156)."