The Origin And Foundation Of The Concept Of Mass

A scientific theory is always known for its rigorous language, but why the concept of mass is so vague? Newton created the concept of mass successfully, which his predecessors failed to, and the concept has laid a solid foundation for the development of physics. What is the special ability of him that has resulted in the creation of the concept? Science has been separated from the natural philosophy gradually, and we wonder whether it can get rid of natural philosophy to become a kind of truth? The concept of mass is likely to be the key to the problem although it is a seemingly very simple concept. As it is an important concept both in science and philosophy, how does it connect the two fields together? In order to solve the above problems, we must study the origin and establishment of this concept carefully.For this reason, the paper has conducted the research on the history of the foundation of the concept of mass. With two dimensions which are the quantity of matter and the property of inertial, we studied the ancient thought, especially the doctrine of Aristotle and the new Platonist. While there was no real concept of mass in the modern sense, but it still has its own profound significance for modern scientists who must have learned a lot from their theory to establish the concept of mass of later. The pioneers of the modern scientists later made progress by revising the theory of their predecessors. In addition, this paper has reservations about the religious origin for the concept of mass. The real concept of mass in modern sense appeared at first among the works of the pioneers of modern science. Momentum theorists of medieval, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes and so on had all made tremendous contributions to the Newton’s eventual foundation of the concept. The concept of mass, which helped Newton establish his whole theory of physics, was such a success. However, it was still being questioned and criticized not long after his appearance. If we study Newton’s creation of the concept of mass carefully enough, we can find the hidden profound metaphysical hypothesis of Newton and the relationship between the concept and the atomic theory. At last this paper still failed to find out the real process in which Newton establish the fantastic concept of mass. This paper just carried out a more detailed study of this process, hoping to be able to change the wrong impression that the laws of physics are absolute truths, make more people aware of the complexity of the concept and reflect the real role of it in the history of scientific development objectively.