Tracing the Precept of Motion from the Ancient to the Scientific Revolution

Philosophers since times immemorial have endeavoured to comprehend the reality of nature and within it the primacy of “motion”. An attempt in this enquiry is being made, to sieve through the corpus of thought, relating to the ontology of motion through primary and secondary data. The article traces the systematic attempt over the ages to cogitate on and formulate the concept of motion, beginning with the ancient mechanistic view, and culminating in Newton's work. In this exposition we scrutinize the shift from positivism, to what Husserl called idealization to account for the scientific theories of motion. In Newton's own words, “Since the ancients esteemed the science of mechanics of greatest importance in the investigation of natural things, and the moderns rejecting substantial forms and occult qualities, have endeavoured to subject the phenomenon of nature to the laws of mathematics, as far as it relates to philosophy” (Newton,1952 ,p.1)