PROBLEM. The treatise is devoted to the reconstruction of our
'instinctive beliefs' in classical mechanics and to present them 'as
much isolated and as free from irrelevant additions as possible'. The
same motivation has driven many authors since the publication of
Newton's Principia. IMPORTANCE. Classical mechanics will remain the
basic reference and tool for mechanics on terrestrial and planetary
scale as well as the proto-theory of relativistic and quantum mechanics.
But it can only serve its purpose if it is not considered as obsolete,
but if its foundations and implications are understood and made
'absolutely' clear. METHOD. Based on the 'instinctive belief' that the
foundations of classical mechanics cannot be found and reconstructed
within mechanics itself but only 'outside', classical mechanics is
'understood' by embedding it into an adequate theory of knowledge and
adequate proto- and meta-theories in terms of the 'language of
dynamics'. Evidence is produced that available philosophical expositions
are not adequate for the purpose at hand. Mechanics is treated as part
of physics, not of mathematics. Not sophisticated mathematical
artifacts, necessary for solving specific problems, but the
intellectually satisfactory foundation of mechanics in general is
subject and purpose of the exercise. The goal is reached using axiomatic
systems as models. SCOPE. Following an account of the unsatisfactory
state of affairs the treatise covers the epistemological foundations,
abstract proto-mechanics, i. e. the theories of time and space,
meta-mechanics, i. e. the theories of state space models and of
quantities proper, and, as an instance of the latter, abstract
elementary mechanics, the theory of translational motions of 'small'
solid bodies in three-dimensional Euclidean space, including classical
general relativity. Subsequently the theory of classical kinematics is
developed as basis for interpreted proto-mechanics and interpreted
elementary mechanics. As an amus
