Cosmological Ideas in the Natural Philosophy of Cadwallader Colden

by Yaroslav Sobolievskyi¹ and Liubov Sobolievska^2
1 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine)
² Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/26/14
Received: 12 December 2020 / Accepted: 10 January 2021 / Published: 29 January 2021

In the history of philosophy, in particular, in the history of early American philosophy, there is a person who deserves special attention, because the extraordinary ideas of this thinker greatly influenced the science of the 18th century. We are talking about Cadwallader Colden, who was an extremely active scientist. He published several treatises on physics, mathematics, ethics, and he studied the nature of mind, psyche, physiology, and the cosmos in which man lives. His cosmological doctrine was formed under the influence of the natural philosophy of Isaac Newton, and it was proof of the existence of philosophical discourse on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of the article is not to test the validity of the ideas of the early American philosopher, not to critically examine the doctrine through the prism of modern physics and cosmology, but to try to assess self-valuable philosophical ideas. The article demonstrates that Cadwallader Colden was a unique and individual philosopher, with original teachings in natural Philosophy and Cosmology. His views on the nature of physical phenomena were similar to mental phenomena; he carefully studied the properties of bodies and the nature of their impact. Using the ancient concept of the ether, he tried to explain the nature of gravity, which keeps the Planets of the Solar System in their orbits. In his understanding, it is impossible to imagine the process of transferring power from one agent to another without an intermediary, and he considered ether to be this intermediary. Since the theory of gravity is still a theory, a philosophical analysis of this phenomenon remains relevant, and an appeal to the cosmological experience of philosophers of the past will allow us to look at the problem from a different angle.

Keywords: Cadwallader Colden, history of philosophy, philosophical cosmology, natural philosophy, early American philosophy

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Sobolievskyi, Yaroslav and Liubov Sobolievska (2021) Cosmological Ideas in the Natural Philosophy of Cadwallader Colden. Philosophy and Cosmology, Volume 26, 169- 178. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/26/14