The transformation of the concept of space during the 17th century

Mouloud Elbikam

Space is a philosophical and scientific concept. It is viewed from the point of view of the field of containment of things and objects, the precondition for their physical existence, but it is also associated with extension, matter, finitude or infinity. Since place is a locus, it may be a Situs or Spatium, in the sense of the field of existence of things, or an abstract background base, and place is usually seen as a distance between things, or an extension between them, and the Cartesian understanding was linking space and extension, as space is extended in length, width, and depth, where emptiness cannot be conceived, as space is a state of being in every location, it is an idea of space. It is a simple idea that the mind acquires through sensation and is subject to a mechanical and geometric explanation, but it is an insufficient explanation, as the space includes Forces Vivant as dynamic elements that remove the character of extension from it, as extension requires stability and permanence, unlike force, which is known only by the effect it leaves, a metaphysical principle that can compensate for extension.