Negentiende-eeuwse theorieën over de materie

Abstract

Theories of matter in the nineteenth century Dalton's atomic theory was soon criticized on philosophical and scientific grounds. During the nineteenth century there was a general scepticism with respect to the real existence of Daltonian atoms. A number of scientists used the atomic theory as a working hypothesis - not necessarily true in nature, but usable for calculation -. Not until the end of the nineteenth century sufficient facts were known for the acceptance of atoms as real entities in nature.In this article the various concepts of matter used in the last century are considered from the point of view that matter fills space and that matter is active in space. When we look at the way in which matter is divided, there are two possibilities: matter fills space continuously or discontinuously. Looking at the manner in which matter is active in space, we can distinguish dynamic (with forces at a distance) and kinetic (with forces acting at contact) systems. We can now make a distinction between four different kinds of theories about matter: discontinuous-kinetic (kinetic theory of gases), discontinuous-dynamic (atomism and point-atomism), continuous-kinetic (vortex theory of the atom) and continuous-dynamic (dynamic and energetic theories). The purpose of this article is to show that these four kinds of theories about matter were used in the nineteenth century.