A historical reconstruction of mechanics as a mathematical physical science

Abstract

According to the widespread opinion of historians, modern mechanics is the result of a revolutionary phenomenon that occurred during the Renaissance, during the so-called scientific revolution, because of the concourse of many factors including the discovery of fundamental mathematical and scientific Archimedean, or more generally Hellenistic, texts, the spread of a Platonic vision of reality in which mathematics played a key role and more in general the affirmation of a mechanistic natural philosophy. I have a different opinion; according to it modern mechanics was primarily born as a natural development of a mechanics carried out by more or less remote mathematicians, of whom Archimedes was an illustrious exponent only. Besides mechanics, these mathematicians developed other sciences known as mixed mathematics: optics, astronomy, music, which are at the basis of modern mathematical physics. This article intends to support this latter opinion making reference to original documents.