Article


The Idea of Action at a Distance between Supernatural Thought and the Scientific View of the World


Variant title

L'idea di azione a distanza tra pensiero magico-religioso e concezione scientifica del mondo

Abstract

The debate on the notion of “action at a distance” emerged at the start of the scientific age, and was an attempt to explain the mechanism of gravitational attraction discovered by Isaac Newton. The idea of “action at a distance” within a vacuum clashed with the new mechanistic vision of the world and seemed to most to constitute a return to Aristotelian cosmology and the alchemical hermeticism that had influenced Renaissance-era science. The reconstruction of this debate can contribute to better understanding contemporary discussions about “action at a distance” in quantum mechanics.

Keywords

DOI

Language

Italian (it)

Author

Roberto PauraUniversità degli Studi di Perugia

Issue

Orbis Idearum Volume 7, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 79-96
Magic in the History of Ideas

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