Recurrent questions about space have dogged philosophers since
ancient times. Can an ordinary person draw from his or her
perceptions to say what space is? Or is it rather a technical
concept that is only within the grasp of experts? Can geometry
characterize the world in which we live? What is God's relation to
space? In Ancient Greece, Euclid set out to define space by
devising a codified set of axioms and associated theorems that were
then passed down for centuries, thought by many philosophers to be
the only sensible way of trying to fathom space. Centuries later,
when Newton transformed the 'natural philosophy' of the seventeenth
century into the physics of the eighteenth century, he placed the
mathematical analysis of space, time, and motion at the center of
his work. When Kant began to explore modern notions of 'idealism'
and 'realism,' space played a central role. But the study of space
was transformed forever when, in 1915, Einstein published his
general theory of relativity, explaining that the world is not
Euclidean after all. This volume chronicles the development of
philosophical conceptions of space from early antiquity through the
medieval period to the early modern era. The chapters describe the
interactions at different moments in history between philosophy and
various other disciplines, especially geometry, optics, and natural
science more generally. Fascinating central figures from the
history of mathematics, science and philosophy are discussed,
including Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Ibn al-Haytham, Nicole
Oresme, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Kant. As
with other books in the series, shorter essays, or Reflections,
enrich the volume by characterizing perspectives on space found in
various disciplines including ecology, mathematics, sculpture,
neuroscience, cultural geography, art history, and the history of
science.
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