Abstract

MEDEIROS, Djalma. O MEMORÁVEL ERRO DE DESCARTES SEGUNDO LEIBNIZ: A QUESTÃO DA FORÇA VIVA. Educação e Filosofia [online]. 2011, vol.25, n.spe, pp.267-291.  Epub Jan 31, 2024. ISSN 1982-596X.  https://doi.org/10.14393/revedfil.issn.0102-6801.v25nespeciala2011-12.

In his mature writings, Leibniz elaborates a series of objections to the Cartesian notion of extension as the essence of bodies. Particularly, this notion is considered incompatible with Descartes’ own principle of conservation of movement, and even the addition of the notion of mass to extension is not sufficient to account for mechanical actions. Thus, it is necessary to conceive of driving force or action as a dynamic and distinct reality, and add the metaphysical principle of equivalence between the full cause and the entire effect to the theory of movement. Descartes’ error was to evaluate force by the quantity of movement. For although the estimate of the quantity of movement by mv (a composition of the quantity of extension m with the measure of movement v) reflects the Cartesian concept of body, it is not conserved. What is conserved is the force, estimated from the quantity of effect that it is capable of producing, as, for example, the height to which a body can raise itself. From this, it follows that mv² is the quantity that measures the force and, therefore, what is conserved in movement. Descartes’ error has implications that go beyond mechanics and have repercussions on metaphysics itself, rendering invalid, as a typical case, the Cartesian answer to the relation between body and soul.

Keywords : Descartes; Leibniz; Living force; Dynamics; Matter.

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