The Epistemological Transformation of Mechanics in the 19th Century

At the end of 18th century, the discipline of mechanics was considered a part of mathematics, usually of what was commonly known as ‘mixed mathematics’, and this included many disciplines from optics and astronomy to artillery and fortification. This status changed along the 19th century, a period in which mechanics was a part of pure mathematics, of applied mathematics and, by the end of the century, of mathematical physics or even of theoretical physics, depending on the accounts. This implies the transformation of mechanics from a mathematical discipline into a physical one, or at least into a more empirically-based discipline. The aim of this talk is to understand this transformation from the point of view of the changing status of its fundamental principles and to show how this change is related to the groundbreaking changes in mathematics and in physics that took place along the century.
Dr. María de Paz is Assistant Professor at the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Seville (Spain). She obtained her PhD in Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) in 2014. She has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Mathematics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Brazil) and at the University of Seville. Among her publications are the co-edited volume (with Robert DiSalle) Poincaré, Philosopher of Science. Problems and Perspectives, and the single authored book Henri Poincaré: From Conventionalism to Gravitation [in Spanish]. Her current research is focused on the epistemological consequences of the interactions between mathematics and physics in 19th century mechanics.