NATS EXAM 2023 WITH 100% CORRECT ANSWERS

Why were impenetrability and rebound two difficulties for the mechanical philosophy? They could not be explained in terms of purely mechanical principles, that is, they could not be explained if matter was inert and capable of moving only upon contact with other moving matter. Why did Newton claim that his active principles were not occult qualities? He argued that active principles are made manifest by observation and experiments, and are intelligible because they can be described mathematically, even though their causes remain unknown. How was a mechanical explanation after Newton different from a mechanical explanation before Newton? Before Newton, mechanical explanation only admitted inert matter and motion as explanatory principles. After Newton, a mechanical explanation used forces, that is, Newtonian active principles, to explain the phenomena. Why was Geoffroy's table of rapports criticized by natural philosophers? It just described and ordered the relations between chemical substances without explaining their causes. It was natural history, not philosophy. What were the uses of taxonomy in the eighteenth century? It served to describe and order the variety of animals and plants for didactical, medical, and agricultural purposes. It was also a means to discover the order of nature, which for many was a model of social order. Natural theologians studied the order of nature because it was God's creation. What was Linnaeus's distinction between natural and artificial classification? A natural classification would use true affinities and map the order of nature. An artificial classification used similarities conveniently chosen by the naturalist, but it should also aim to approximate a natural classification. What was according to Stahl the difference between "chemical principles" and "physical principles" in natural philosophy? Physical principles were the invisible entities of which substances were believed to be composed. Chemical principles were the observable substances into which other substances could be decomposed through laboratory operations. Why did Lavoisier believe that a new chemical language was needed? Scientific language should reflect clearly and exactly ideas that are derived in a systematic way from experience.