Interesting, Jerry. The Scottish Common Sense philosophers (Thomas Reid and his followers) were Boscovichians, but they thought just that atoms were very small, not points, since one could not confirm they were points, but they acted like points, being very small. They were quite influential on many later developments in Empiricism. The table also misses Thomas Hobbes, whose political philosophy was based entirely on an atheistic atomism.
Lucretius, interestingly, proposed evolution by natural selection, which he thought was a corollary to his atomism. I think that Peirce's evolutionary views and his views on continuity are more in line with Boscovich, as you suggest Jerry. I didn't know that Peirce followed Boscovich, but it makes sense. John -----Original Message----- From: Jerry LR Chandler [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: March 25, 2015 3:58 PM To: Peirce List Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Philosophies of Atomic Theory List: This website: http://www.eoht.info/page/Atomic+theory gives a short survey of atomism, from classic Greek philosophy to modern times, including its relation to sub-atomic physics. The stages of development of philosophical thought about the nature of matter are presented diagrammatically over various periods of thought. One can place CSP's scientific views in the contexts of his times, a topic I have mentioned on several occasions. Many students of CSP could find this useful for evaluating various CSP's text. In particular, note that CSP was a follower of Boscovich. Cheers Jerry John Collier, Philosophy, UKZN, Durban 4041 http://web.ncf.ca/collier
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