Theory of forces and the structure of matter - Ruđer Bošković

Huge importance of the theory of force and the structure of matter described by Ruđer Bošković should also be observed in the historical context. Namely, at the time Bošković lived, there was still a conflict between the ecclesiastical geocentric system based on Plato's and Aristotle's heritage and by the law forbidden Copernicus heliocentric system based on Newton's physics. Bošković, as an ordained priest, succeeded in reconciling these views that at that time were at the core of the problem of social worldview, because the struggle between these oppositions brought the philosophical and theological consequences. Thus, carefully balancing the theories of natural phenomena, Bošković described the theory that there is a single law of nature (lat. Lex unica virium in natura existentium). The idea that all reality is interpreted on the basis of one law is Bošković's contribution to world science. One can see the same idea in the work of Albert Einstein, W. Heisenberg and in contemporary science, where one has not yet succeeded in describing four known forces in nature (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear power) in a single theory. Bošković made a single law draft for a large unified field theory or even more theory of everything.

In Bošković's work, there are many ideas that are only fully expressed in modern physics in the last fifty years and show that the philosophical viewpoints Bošković led in his natural science were right. However, it might be said that his most important contribution is the one regarding the understanding of the structure of matter. Today, science sees basic substances of the matter just the way Bošković had described them. The material, according to Bošković, consists of physical points, which are simple, indivisible, impenetrable, mutually separated and without any structure, and the origin are the forces that work remotely. Bošković was the first to reject the possibility of direct contact of particles due to the repulsive force. By then, no one had denied the existence of contact between the particles of matter.

His original theory of force and structure of matter is even today so modern that he can be considered a scientific visionary of the twentieth century