Horror vacui (physics)

In philosophy and early physics, horror vacui (Latin: horror of the vacuum) or plenism (/ˈpliːnɪzəm/)—commonly stated as "nature abhors a vacuum", for example by Spinoza^[1]—is a hypothesis attributed to Aristotle, later criticized by the atomism of Epicurus and Lucretius, that nature contains no vacuums because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill the rarity of an incipient void.^[2]

Aristotle also argued against the void in a more abstract sense: since a void is merely nothingness, following his teacher Plato, nothingness cannot rightly be said to exist.^{[citation needed]} Furthermore, insofar as a void would be featureless, it could neither be encountered by the senses nor could its supposition lend additional explanatory power. Hero of Alexandria challenged the theory in the first century AD, but his attempts to create an artificial vacuum failed.^[3] The theory was debated in the context of 17th-century fluid mechanics, by Thomas Hobbes and Robert Boyle,^[4] among others, and through the early 18th century by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.^[5]^[6]

^ Spinoza's Ethics and De Intellectus Emendatione. JM Dent & Sons / EP Dutton & Co, 1910 [1928], p. 14.
^ Aristotle. Physics. IV, 6–9. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
^ Genz, Henning (1999) [1994]. Nothingness, the Science of Empty Space (translated from German by Karin Heusch ed.). New York: Perseus. ISBN 978-0-7382-0610-3. OCLC 48836264.
^ Shapin, S.; Schaffer, S. (2011) [1989]. Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life. Princeton University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 9781400838493.
^ Rynasiewicz, Robert (2011). "Newton's Views on Space, Time, and Motion". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 ed.). Descartes, it can be justly said, is the founder of the other main school of the "mechanical philosophy" of the 17th Century, which stood in direct opposition to atomism on the issue of the possibility of a vacuum and which adapted the Aristotelian doctrines on the nature of time, space, and motion to the new world view.
^ Barrow, J.D. (2002). The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe. Vintage Series. Vintage. p. 70. ISBN 9780375726095. LCCN 00058894.

[1] Spinoza's Ethics and De Intellectus Emendatione. JM Dent & Sons / EP Dutton & Co, 1910 [1928], p. 14.

[Physica-2] Aristotle. Physics. IV, 6–9. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2012-07-10.

[genz-3] Genz, Henning (1999) [1994]. Nothingness, the Science of Empty Space (translated from German by Karin Heusch ed.). New York: Perseus. ISBN 978-0-7382-0610-3. OCLC 48836264.

[Shapin2011-4] Shapin, S.; Schaffer, S. (2011) [1989]. Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life. Princeton University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 9781400838493.

[sep-newton-stm-5] Rynasiewicz, Robert (2011). "Newton's Views on Space, Time, and Motion". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 ed.). Descartes, it can be justly said, is the founder of the other main school of the "mechanical philosophy" of the 17th Century, which stood in direct opposition to atomism on the issue of the possibility of a vacuum and which adapted the Aristotelian doctrines on the nature of time, space, and motion to the new world view.

[Barrow2002-6] Barrow, J.D. (2002). The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe. Vintage Series. Vintage. p. 70. ISBN 9780375726095. LCCN 00058894.

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