isaac newton essay in english

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician famous for his laws of physics. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century.

(1643-1727)

Who Was Isaac Newton?

In 1687, he published his most acclaimed work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) , which has been called the single most influential book on physics. In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne of England, making him Sir Isaac Newton.

Early Life and Family

Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Using the "old" Julian calendar, Newton's birth date is sometimes displayed as December 25, 1642.

Newton was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac, who died three months before he was born. A premature baby born tiny and weak, Newton was not expected to survive.

When he was 3 years old, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried a well-to-do minister, Barnabas Smith, and went to live with him, leaving young Newton with his maternal grandmother.

The experience left an indelible imprint on Newton, later manifesting itself as an acute sense of insecurity. He anxiously obsessed over his published work, defending its merits with irrational behavior.

At age 12, Newton was reunited with his mother after her second husband died. She brought along her three small children from her second marriage.

Isaac Newton's Education

Newton was enrolled at the King's School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry.

His mother pulled him out of school at age 12. Her plan was to make him a farmer and have him tend the farm. Newton failed miserably, as he found farming monotonous. Newton was soon sent back to King's School to finish his basic education.

Perhaps sensing the young man's innate intellectual abilities, his uncle, a graduate of the University of Cambridge's Trinity College , persuaded Newton's mother to have him enter the university. Newton enrolled in a program similar to a work-study in 1661, and subsequently waited on tables and took care of wealthier students' rooms.

Scientific Revolution

When Newton arrived at Cambridge, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. The heliocentric view of the universe—theorized by astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and later refined by Galileo —was well known in most European academic circles.

Philosopher René Descartes had begun to formulate a new concept of nature as an intricate, impersonal and inert machine. Yet, like most universities in Europe, Cambridge was steeped in Aristotelian philosophy and a view of nature resting on a geocentric view of the universe, dealing with nature in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.

During his first three years at Cambridge, Newton was taught the standard curriculum but was fascinated with the more advanced science. All his spare time was spent reading from the modern philosophers. The result was a less-than-stellar performance, but one that is understandable, given his dual course of study.

It was during this time that Newton kept a second set of notes, entitled "Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae" ("Certain Philosophical Questions"). The "Quaestiones" reveal that Newton had discovered the new concept of nature that provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution. Though Newton graduated without honors or distinctions, his efforts won him the title of scholar and four years of financial support for future education.

In 1665, the bubonic plague that was ravaging Europe had come to Cambridge, forcing the university to close. After a two-year hiatus, Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and was elected a minor fellow at Trinity College, as he was still not considered a standout scholar.

In the ensuing years, his fortune improved. Newton received his Master of Arts degree in 1669, before he was 27. During this time, he came across Nicholas Mercator's published book on methods for dealing with infinite series.

Newton quickly wrote a treatise, De Analysi , expounding his own wider-ranging results. He shared this with friend and mentor Isaac Barrow, but didn't include his name as author.

In June 1669, Barrow shared the unaccredited manuscript with British mathematician John Collins. In August 1669, Barrow identified its author to Collins as "Mr. Newton ... very young ... but of an extraordinary genius and proficiency in these things."

Newton's work was brought to the attention of the mathematics community for the first time. Shortly afterward, Barrow resigned his Lucasian professorship at Cambridge, and Newton assumed the chair.

Isaac Newton’s Discoveries

Newton made discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics. Newton theorized that white light was a composite of all colors of the spectrum, and that light was composed of particles.

His momentous book on physics, Principia , contains information on nearly all of the essential concepts of physics except energy, ultimately helping him to explain the laws of motion and the theory of gravity. Along with mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Newton is credited for developing essential theories of calculus.

Isaac Newton Inventions

Newton's first major public scientific achievement was designing and constructing a reflecting telescope in 1668. As a professor at Cambridge, Newton was required to deliver an annual course of lectures and chose optics as his initial topic. He used his telescope to study optics and help prove his theory of light and color.

The Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope in 1671, and the organization's interest encouraged Newton to publish his notes on light, optics and color in 1672. These notes were later published as part of Newton's Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light .

The Apple Myth

Between 1665 and 1667, Newton returned home from Trinity College to pursue his private study, as school was closed due to the Great Plague. Legend has it that, at this time, Newton experienced his famous inspiration of gravity with the falling apple. According to this common myth, Newton was sitting under an apple tree when a fruit fell and hit him on the head, inspiring him to suddenly come up with the theory of gravity.

While there is no evidence that the apple actually hit Newton on the head, he did see an apple fall from a tree, leading him to wonder why it fell straight down and not at an angle. Consequently, he began exploring the theories of motion and gravity.

It was during this 18-month hiatus as a student that Newton conceived many of his most important insights—including the method of infinitesimal calculus, the foundations for his theory of light and color, and the laws of planetary motion—that eventually led to the publication of his physics book Principia and his theory of gravity.

Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion

In 1687, following 18 months of intense and effectively nonstop work, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) , most often known as Principia .

Principia is said to be the single most influential book on physics and possibly all of science. Its publication immediately raised Newton to international prominence.

Principia offers an exact quantitative description of bodies in motion, with three basic but important laws of motion:

A stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it.

Force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion (i.e., change in speed) is proportional to the force applied.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton and the Theory of Gravity

Newton’s three basic laws of motion outlined in Principia helped him arrive at his theory of gravity. Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that two objects attract each other with a force of gravitational attraction that’s proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.

These laws helped explain not only elliptical planetary orbits but nearly every other motion in the universe: how the planets are kept in orbit by the pull of the sun’s gravity; how the moon revolves around Earth and the moons of Jupiter revolve around it; and how comets revolve in elliptical orbits around the sun.

They also allowed him to calculate the mass of each planet, calculate the flattening of the Earth at the poles and the bulge at the equator, and how the gravitational pull of the sun and moon create the Earth’s tides. In Newton's account, gravity kept the universe balanced, made it work, and brought heaven and Earth together in one great equation.

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Isaac Newton & Robert Hooke

Not everyone at the Royal Academy was enthusiastic about Newton’s discoveries in optics and 1672 publication of Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light . Among the dissenters was Robert Hooke , one of the original members of the Royal Academy and a scientist who was accomplished in a number of areas, including mechanics and optics.

While Newton theorized that light was composed of particles, Hooke believed it was composed of waves. Hooke quickly condemned Newton's paper in condescending terms, and attacked Newton's methodology and conclusions.

Hooke was not the only one to question Newton's work in optics. Renowned Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens and a number of French Jesuits also raised objections. But because of Hooke's association with the Royal Society and his own work in optics, his criticism stung Newton the worst.

Unable to handle the critique, he went into a rage—a reaction to criticism that was to continue throughout his life. Newton denied Hooke's charge that his theories had any shortcomings and argued the importance of his discoveries to all of science.

In the ensuing months, the exchange between the two men grew more acrimonious, and soon Newton threatened to quit the Royal Society altogether. He remained only when several other members assured him that the Fellows held him in high esteem.

The rivalry between Newton and Hooke would continue for several years thereafter. Then, in 1678, Newton suffered a complete nervous breakdown and the correspondence abruptly ended. The death of his mother the following year caused him to become even more isolated, and for six years he withdrew from intellectual exchange except when others initiated correspondence, which he always kept short.

During his hiatus from public life, Newton returned to his study of gravitation and its effects on the orbits of planets. Ironically, the impetus that put Newton on the right direction in this study came from Robert Hooke.

In a 1679 letter of general correspondence to Royal Society members for contributions, Hooke wrote to Newton and brought up the question of planetary motion, suggesting that a formula involving the inverse squares might explain the attraction between planets and the shape of their orbits.

Subsequent exchanges transpired before Newton quickly broke off the correspondence once again. But Hooke's idea was soon incorporated into Newton's work on planetary motion, and from his notes it appears he had quickly drawn his own conclusions by 1680, though he kept his discoveries to himself.

In early 1684, in a conversation with fellow Royal Society members Christopher Wren and Edmond Halley, Hooke made his case on the proof for planetary motion. Both Wren and Halley thought he was on to something, but pointed out that a mathematical demonstration was needed.

In August 1684, Halley traveled to Cambridge to visit with Newton, who was coming out of his seclusion. Halley idly asked him what shape the orbit of a planet would take if its attraction to the sun followed the inverse square of the distance between them (Hooke's theory).

Newton knew the answer, due to his concentrated work for the past six years, and replied, "An ellipse." Newton claimed to have solved the problem some 18 years prior, during his hiatus from Cambridge and the plague, but he was unable to find his notes. Halley persuaded him to work out the problem mathematically and offered to pay all costs so that the ideas might be published, which it was, in Newton’s Principia .

Upon the publication of the first edition of Principia in 1687, Robert Hooke immediately accused Newton of plagiarism, claiming that he had discovered the theory of inverse squares and that Newton had stolen his work. The charge was unfounded, as most scientists knew, for Hooke had only theorized on the idea and had never brought it to any level of proof.

Newton, however, was furious and strongly defended his discoveries. He withdrew all references to Hooke in his notes and threatened to withdraw from publishing the subsequent edition of Principia altogether.

Halley, who had invested much of himself in Newton's work, tried to make peace between the two men. While Newton begrudgingly agreed to insert a joint acknowledgment of Hooke's work (shared with Wren and Halley) in his discussion of the law of inverse squares, it did nothing to placate Hooke.

As the years went on, Hooke's life began to unravel. His beloved niece and companion died the same year that Principia was published, in 1687. As Newton's reputation and fame grew, Hooke's declined, causing him to become even more bitter and loathsome toward his rival.

To the very end, Hooke took every opportunity he could to offend Newton. Knowing that his rival would soon be elected president of the Royal Society, Hooke refused to retire until the year of his death, in 1703.

Newton and Alchemy

Following the publication of Principia , Newton was ready for a new direction in life. He no longer found contentment in his position at Cambridge and was becoming more involved in other issues.

He helped lead the resistance to King James II's attempts to reinstitute Catholic teaching at Cambridge, and in 1689 he was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament.

While in London, Newton acquainted himself with a broader group of intellectuals and became acquainted with political philosopher John Locke . Though many of the scientists on the continent continued to teach the mechanical world according to Aristotle , a young generation of British scientists became captivated with Newton's new view of the physical world and recognized him as their leader.

One of these admirers was Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, a Swiss mathematician whom Newton befriended while in London.

However, within a few years, Newton fell into another nervous breakdown in 1693. The cause is open to speculation: his disappointment over not being appointed to a higher position by England's new monarchs, William III and Mary II, or the subsequent loss of his friendship with Duillier; exhaustion from being overworked; or perhaps chronic mercury poisoning after decades of alchemical research.

It's difficult to know the exact cause, but evidence suggests that letters written by Newton to several of his London acquaintances and friends, including Duillier, seemed deranged and paranoiac, and accused them of betrayal and conspiracy.

Oddly enough, Newton recovered quickly, wrote letters of apology to friends, and was back to work within a few months. He emerged with all his intellectual facilities intact, but seemed to have lost interest in scientific problems and now favored pursuing prophecy and scripture and the study of alchemy.

While some might see this as work beneath the man who had revolutionized science, it might be more properly attributed to Newton responding to the issues of the time in turbulent 17th century Britain.

Many intellectuals were grappling with the meaning of many different subjects, not least of which were religion, politics and the very purpose of life. Modern science was still so new that no one knew for sure how it measured up against older philosophies.

Gold Standard

In 1696, Newton was able to attain the governmental position he had long sought: warden of the Mint; after acquiring this new title, he permanently moved to London and lived with his niece, Catherine Barton.

Barton was the mistress of Lord Halifax, a high-ranking government official who was instrumental in having Newton promoted, in 1699, to master of the Mint—a position that he would hold until his death.

Not wanting it to be considered a mere honorary position, Newton approached the job in earnest, reforming the currency and severely punishing counterfeiters. As master of the Mint, Newton moved the British currency, the pound sterling, from the silver to the gold standard.

The Royal Society

In 1703, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society upon Robert Hooke's death. However, Newton never seemed to understand the notion of science as a cooperative venture, and his ambition and fierce defense of his own discoveries continued to lead him from one conflict to another with other scientists.

By most accounts, Newton's tenure at the society was tyrannical and autocratic; he was able to control the lives and careers of younger scientists with absolute power.

In 1705, in a controversy that had been brewing for several years, German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz publicly accused Newton of plagiarizing his research, claiming he had discovered infinitesimal calculus several years before the publication of Principia .

In 1712, the Royal Society appointed a committee to investigate the matter. Of course, since Newton was president of the society, he was able to appoint the committee's members and oversee its investigation. Not surprisingly, the committee concluded Newton's priority over the discovery.

That same year, in another of Newton's more flagrant episodes of tyranny, he published without permission the notes of astronomer John Flamsteed. It seems the astronomer had collected a massive body of data from his years at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

Newton had requested a large volume of Flamsteed's notes for his revisions to Principia . Annoyed when Flamsteed wouldn't provide him with more information as quickly as he wanted it, Newton used his influence as president of the Royal Society to be named the chairman of the body of "visitors" responsible for the Royal Observatory.

He then tried to force the immediate publication of Flamsteed's catalogue of the stars, as well as all of Flamsteed's notes, edited and unedited. To add insult to injury, Newton arranged for Flamsteed's mortal enemy, Edmund Halley, to prepare the notes for press.

Flamsteed was finally able to get a court order forcing Newton to cease his plans for publication and return the notes—one of the few times that Newton was bested by one of his rivals.

Final Years

Toward the end of this life, Newton lived at Cranbury Park, near Winchester, England, with his niece, Catherine (Barton) Conduitt, and her husband, John Conduitt.

By this time, Newton had become one of the most famous men in Europe. His scientific discoveries were unchallenged. He also had become wealthy, investing his sizable income wisely and bestowing sizable gifts to charity.

Despite his fame, Newton's life was far from perfect: He never married or made many friends, and in his later years, a combination of pride, insecurity and side trips on peculiar scientific inquiries led even some of his few friends to worry about his mental stability.

By the time he reached 80 years of age, Newton was experiencing digestion problems and had to drastically change his diet and mobility.

In March 1727, Newton experienced severe pain in his abdomen and blacked out, never to regain consciousness. He died the next day, on March 31, 1727, at the age of 84.

Newton's fame grew even more after his death, as many of his contemporaries proclaimed him the greatest genius who ever lived. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but his discoveries had a large impact on Western thought, leading to comparisons to the likes of Plato , Aristotle and Galileo.

Although his discoveries were among many made during the Scientific Revolution, Newton's universal principles of gravity found no parallels in science at the time.

Of course, Newton was proven wrong on some of his key assumptions. In the 20th century, Albert Einstein would overturn Newton's concept of the universe, stating that space, distance and motion were not absolute but relative and that the universe was more fantastic than Newton had ever conceived.

Newton might not have been surprised: In his later life, when asked for an assessment of his achievements, he replied, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Isaac Newton
• Birth Year: 1643
• Birth date: January 4, 1643
• Birth City: Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician famous for his laws of physics. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century.
• Science and Medicine
• Technology and Engineering
• Education and Academia
• Astrological Sign: Capricorn
• University of Cambridge, Trinity College
• The King's School
• Interesting Facts
• Isaac Newton helped develop the principles of modern physics, including the laws of motion, and is credited as one of the great minds of the 17th-century Scientific Revolution.
• In 1687, Newton published his most acclaimed work, 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' ('Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'), which has been called the single most influential book on physics.
• Newton's theory of gravity states that two objects attract each other with a force of gravitational attraction that’s proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
• Death Year: 1727
• Death date: March 31, 1727
• Death City: London, England
• Death Country: United Kingdom

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Isaac Newton Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/scientists/isaac-newton
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: November 5, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
• Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
• If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
• It is the perfection of God's works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity.
• Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
• To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.
• I see I have made myself a slave to philosophy.
• The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies, is very conformable to the course of nature, which seems delighted with transmutations.
• To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. Tis much better to do a little with certainty and leave the rest for others that come after, then to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.
• Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
• Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.
• Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind that looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago.

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Isaac Newton

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 16, 2023 | Original: March 10, 2015

Isaac Newton is best know for his theory about the law of gravity, but his “Principia Mathematica” (1686) with its three laws of motion greatly influenced the Enlightenment in Europe. Born in 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England, Sir Isaac Newton began developing his theories on light, calculus and celestial mechanics while on break from Cambridge University. 

Years of research culminated with the 1687 publication of “Principia,” a landmark work that established the universal laws of motion and gravity. Newton’s second major book, “Opticks,” detailed his experiments to determine the properties of light. Also a student of Biblical history and alchemy, the famed scientist served as president of the Royal Society of London and master of England’s Royal Mint until his death in 1727.

Isaac Newton: Early Life and Education

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The son of a farmer who died three months before he was born, Newton spent most of his early years with his maternal grandmother after his mother remarried. His education was interrupted by a failed attempt to turn him into a farmer, and he attended the King’s School in Grantham before enrolling at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1661.

Newton studied a classical curriculum at Cambridge, but he became fascinated by the works of modern philosophers such as René Descartes, even devoting a set of notes to his outside readings he titled “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae” (“Certain Philosophical Questions”). When the Great Plague shuttered Cambridge in 1665, Newton returned home and began formulating his theories on calculus, light and color, his farm the setting for the supposed falling apple that inspired his work on gravity.

Isaac Newton’s Telescope and Studies on Light

Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and was elected a minor fellow. He constructed the first reflecting telescope in 1668, and the following year he received his Master of Arts degree and took over as Cambridge’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Asked to give a demonstration of his telescope to the Royal Society of London in 1671, he was elected to the Royal Society the following year and published his notes on optics for his peers.

Through his experiments with refraction, Newton determined that white light was a composite of all the colors on the spectrum, and he asserted that light was composed of particles instead of waves. His methods drew sharp rebuke from established Society member Robert Hooke, who was unsparing again with Newton’s follow-up paper in 1675. 

Known for his temperamental defense of his work, Newton engaged in heated correspondence with Hooke before suffering a nervous breakdown and withdrawing from the public eye in 1678. In the following years, he returned to his earlier studies on the forces governing gravity and dabbled in alchemy.

Isaac Newton and the Law of Gravity

In 1684, English astronomer Edmund Halley paid a visit to the secluded Newton. Upon learning that Newton had mathematically worked out the elliptical paths of celestial bodies, Halley urged him to organize his notes. 

The result was the 1687 publication of “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which established the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravity. Newton’s three laws of motion state that (1) Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it; (2) Force equals mass times acceleration: F=MA and (3) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

“Principia” propelled Newton to stardom in intellectual circles, eventually earning universal acclaim as one of the most important works of modern science. His work was a foundational part of the European Enlightenment .

With his newfound influence, Newton opposed the attempts of King James II to reinstitute Catholic teachings at English Universities. King James II was replaced by his protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and Newton was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament in 1689. 

Newton moved to London permanently after being named warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, earning a promotion to master of the Mint three years later. Determined to prove his position wasn’t merely symbolic, Newton moved the pound sterling from the silver to the gold standard and sought to punish counterfeiters.

The death of Hooke in 1703 allowed Newton to take over as president of the Royal Society, and the following year he published his second major work, “Opticks.” Composed largely from his earlier notes on the subject, the book detailed Newton’s painstaking experiments with refraction and the color spectrum, closing with his ruminations on such matters as energy and electricity. In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne of England.

Isaac Newton: Founder of Calculus?

Around this time, the debate over Newton’s claims to originating the field of calculus exploded into a nasty dispute. Newton had developed his concept of “fluxions” (differentials) in the mid 1660s to account for celestial orbits, though there was no public record of his work. 

In the meantime, German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz formulated his own mathematical theories and published them in 1684. As president of the Royal Society, Newton oversaw an investigation that ruled his work to be the founding basis of the field, but the debate continued even after Leibniz’s death in 1716. Researchers later concluded that both men likely arrived at their conclusions independent of one another.

Death of Isaac Newton

Newton was also an ardent student of history and religious doctrines, and his writings on those subjects were compiled into multiple books that were published posthumously. Having never married, Newton spent his later years living with his niece at Cranbury Park near Winchester, England. He died in his sleep on March 31, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey .

A giant even among the brilliant minds that drove the Scientific Revolution, Newton is remembered as a transformative scholar, inventor and writer. He eradicated any doubts about the heliocentric model of the universe by establishing celestial mechanics, his precise methodology giving birth to what is known as the scientific method. Although his theories of space-time and gravity eventually gave way to those of Albert Einstein , his work remains the bedrock on which modern physics was built.

Isaac Newton Quotes

• “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
• “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.”
• “What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.”
• “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.”
• “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.”

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Essay On Isaac Newton

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Topic: Education , Science , Students , Literature , Innovation , Violence , World , Isaac Newton

Published: 11/15/2019

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Isaac Newton was an English scientist who not only studied but made stupendous discoveries in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. However, he is also a well-known astronomer, natural philosopher and theologian. Sir Isaac Newton was born in three months after the death of his father and when his mother remarried he moved to his grandparents. These were the people that raised him from his youth. On reaching the proper age, Newton attended Cambridge University where he stayed until the plague hit. Even though he called his age of the time of the plague "the prime of my age for invention", no natural disaster was able to stop him from his scientific studies.

It was after the university that he began his discoveries connected with optics. His invention of the reflecting telescope in 1668 finally drew the attention of other scientists. Isaac Newton conducted a number of experiments concerning light and its composition. That’s to this hard work he was able to put forward a number of discoveries. He proved that light can be measured by patterns. Moreover, he proved that white light consists of different colored rays which correspond to the colors of the rainbow. Each ray can be defined by the angle through which it is reflected. All this and much more was published in his book “Optics” in 1704.

Isaac Newton is mostly known for what is now something of a legend, a story told to kids. His discovery of the laws of gravity is what he is best known for among people who do not tie their lives with science. The story goes like this. Isaac was allegedly sitting under a tree. All of a sudden an apple fell on his head. A bit stumped at first, our great scientist started to think and analyze. By measuring the force needed to hold the moon in orbit he inevitably understood that there must be some other force, one which has not been studied before. And so there is – the force of gravity.

Isaac Newton was not only a scientist but also a powerful public figure. He was elected member of the parliament for the University of Cambridge to oppose the Kind James II’s attempts to make universities catholic. It should be noted that he also held the post of a Mint and was even knighted. This was a prominent figure in the scientific world and in the public world of his time. His work will not be forgotten.

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Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist Essay (Biography)

Introduction.

Isaac Newton is one of the greatest historical figures who will remain the annals of history, because of his numerous contributions to different scientific fields such as mathematics and physics. As Hall (Para 1) argues, “Generally, people have always regarded Newton as one of the most influential theorists in the history of science”. Most of his scientific experiments and abstracts laid the foundation of the modern day scientific inventions, as he was able to prove and document different theoretical concepts.

For example, his publication “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” is one of the best scientific reference materials in physics and mathematics. Newton is well remembered for his numerous scientific discoveries such the laws of gravity, differential and integral calculus, the working of a telescope, and the three laws of linear motion. In addition to science, Newton was also very religious, because of the numerous biblical hermeneutics and occult studies that he wrote in his late life (1).

Newton‘s Early Life, Middle and Late Life

Newton’s early life.

Newton was born to Puritan parents Isaac Newton and Hannah Ayscough in 1643 in the county of Lincolnshire, England. He spent most of his childhood days with his grandmother, because his dad had passed away three months before he was born and he could not get along with his stepfather.

As During his early years of school, Newton schooled at the King’s School, Grantham, although it never lasted for long, because the passing away of his stepfather in 1659 forced his family to relocate to Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth; hence, making him to drop out of school. His stay in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth was short-lived, because through the influence of King’s school master Henry Strokes, his mother allowed him to go back to school and finish his studies.

As a result of his exemplary performance in the King’s School, Newton got a chance of joining Trinity College, Cambridge on a sizar basis. In college, Newton was a very hardworking and fast learner, because in addition to reading the normal college curriculum materials that were based on Aristotle’s works, he was interested in reading more philosophical and astronomical works written by other philosophers such as Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo, and Thomas Hobes .

To a large extent, this laid the foundation for his later discoveries, because four years later in 1665, Newton invented the binomial theorem and came up with a mathematical theory, which he later modified to be called the infinitesimal calculus. The closure of Trinity College, Cambridge in the late 1665, because of the plague did not prevent Newton from advancing his studies on his own, as he continued with private studies at home.

Through his private studies Newton was able to discover numerous theories the primary ones being calculus, optics, the foundation of the theory of light and color, and the law of gravitation. Newton was very proud of his advancements, something that was evident in his words “ All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666, for in those days I was in my prime of age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since,’ when college reopened (O’Connor and Robertson 1).

Newton’s middle Life

Upon the re-opening of his college in 1667, he was chosen as a minor fellow, and later as senior fellow when he embarked on his masters of Arts degree. In 1969, he was selected to replace Professor Isaac Barrow, who was the outgoing professor of Mathematics.

His appointment gave him more opportunities of improving his early works in optics, which led to the release of his first project paper on the nature of color in 1672, after being elected to the Royal Society. This marked the start of the numerous publications that Newton released later, although he faced numerous challenges and oppositions from one the leading science researchers, Robert Hook. Between 1670 and 1672 Newton also taught optics at Trinity College, Cambridge.

This enabled him to do further researches on the concept of refraction of light using glass prisms leading to his discovery on refraction of light and development of the first Newtonian telescope using mirrors. Although the 1678 emotional breakdown suffered by Newton was a major setback to his work, after recovering, he continued with his early researches which led to the publication of the Principia; a publication that elaborated on the laws of motion and the universal law of gravity.

In addition to this, the publication elaborated on some calculus laws primarily on geometrical analysis and some more explanations of the heliocentric theory of the solar system. This publication was followed by another publication that was the second edition of the Principia in 1713. This publication provided more explanations on the force of gravity and the force which made objects to be attracted to one another (Hatch 1).

Newton’s Late Life

His works in the Principia made Newton to a very respected and famous scientist of the time; hence, the nature of appointments, which he received in his late life. For example, in 1689 he was selected as the parliamentary representative of Cambridge; one of the highest power seats of the time. As if this was not enough, in 1703 Newton become the president of the Royal Society, a seat he maintained until his death and Later on in 1704, Newton released a publication named “Opticks” (Fowler 1).

The dawn of 1690’was a transitional period for Newton, as he ventured into the Bible World. As Hatch (1) argues “during this period Newton ventured into writing religious tracts with literal interpretation of the Bible.” Some of his writings included some works which questioned the reality behind the Trinity and the Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended.

Newton’s Scientific Achievements

Newton was one of the most successful historical scientists, because of his numerous contributions to different fields of science such as optics, mathematics, geography, and physics. In mathematics Newton’s discoveries included the binomial theorem of analytical geometry, new methods of solving infinite series in calculus, and the inverse methods of fluxions.

In optic, Newton was one of the first individuals to perform the first experiments on the decomposition of light and the working of the telescope, because of his early discovery on separation of the white light. This enabled Newton to formulate the Corpuscular Light Theory and discover other properties of the white light.

In addition to this, Newton also made numerous discoveries in Physics and mechanics such gravitational force, the centripetal force, the theory of fluids, and the revolution of planetary bodies. Further, Newton was made numerous discoveries in Alchemy and Chemistry, most of which are documented in his numerous publications on different areas of Alchemy, most of which were based on scientific experiments on matter (Hatch 1).

Although in his later life his level of wit his wit reduced, as Hatch (Para 13) argues, “Newton continued to exercise strong influence on the advancement of science, because of his position in the Royal Society. Newton died at the age of eighty fours in 1727, leaving behind a legacy will always remembered in the history of humankind, because of his scientific works.

Works Cited

Fowler, Michael. Isaac Newton: Newton’s life . 2010. Web.

Hall, Alfred. Isaac Newton’s life. Isaac Newton Institute of mathematical Sciences . 2011. Web.

Hatch, Robert. Sir Isaac Newton. 1998. Web.

O ’ Connor, John and Robertson, Ernest. Sir Isaac Newton . 2000. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 31). Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-biography-of-isaac-newton/

"Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-biography-of-isaac-newton/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist'. 31 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-biography-of-isaac-newton/.

1. IvyPanda . "Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-biography-of-isaac-newton/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-biography-of-isaac-newton/.

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Essay on Isaac Newton

Students are often asked to write an essay on Isaac Newton in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in England. He was a curious child who loved reading and exploring nature.

Discoveries

Newton is famous for discovering gravity. The story goes that an apple falling from a tree inspired him. He also developed the three laws of motion.

Contributions to Mathematics

Newton invented a type of math called calculus. It helps us understand things that change and is used in many areas today.

Newton died in 1727. His discoveries still impact science and mathematics, making him one of the greatest thinkers in history.

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250 Words Essay on Isaac Newton

Early life and education.

Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England, emerged as a pivotal figure in scientific revolution. His early education at King’s School, Grantham, laid the foundation for his future endeavors. Newton’s mother’s attempt to make him a farmer was thwarted by his evident intellectual curiosity, leading to his enrollment at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Developments in Mathematics and Physics

Newton’s most significant contributions lie in mathematics and physics. His work ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ is a testament to his genius, introducing the three laws of motion, forming the basis of classical mechanics. Additionally, he developed calculus, a branch of mathematics instrumental in understanding changes in quantities.

Optics and the Theory of Colour

Newton’s work in optics revolutionized understanding of light and colour. His experiments with prisms led to the discovery that white light is a composite of all colors in the spectrum, debunking the then-prevailing belief of color being a mixture of light and darkness.

Legacy and Impact

Newton’s legacy extends beyond his lifetime, with his principles still being fundamental to modern scientific thought. His laws of motion and universal gravitation shaped our understanding of the physical world, while his work in optics and mathematics has far-reaching implications in various scientific fields.

In conclusion, Isaac Newton’s contributions to science and mathematics have been monumental, influencing centuries of scientific thought and discovery. His life and work continue to inspire curiosity and innovation in the quest for knowledge.

500 Words Essay on Isaac Newton

Introduction.

Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England, was a renowned physicist and mathematician. He is often hailed as one of the most influential scientists of all time. His contributions to the fields of physics, mathematics, and astronomy have had a profound impact on our understanding of the natural world.

Newton’s Early Life and Education

Newton was born prematurely and was not expected to survive. His father had died three months before his birth, leaving him with his mother, who later remarried. Newton was then raised by his grandmother. Despite these early hardships, Newton’s intellectual curiosity led him to the University of Cambridge, where he studied from 1661 to 1665.

The Birth of Newtonian Physics

During his time at Cambridge, Newton developed the foundations of calculus, though it wasn’t until later that he fully developed and published his work. The university closed in 1665 due to the Great Plague, and Newton returned home. It was during this period, known as his annus mirabilis, or “year of wonders”, that he made some of his most significant discoveries.

Among these was the law of universal gravitation, inspired reportedly by the fall of an apple from a tree. He proposed that every particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This was a revolutionary concept that provided a unified explanation for terrestrial and celestial mechanics.

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

In his work “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica”, Newton outlined his three laws of motion. The first law, often called the law of inertia, states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. The second law established the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. The third law, known as the action-reaction law, states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Contributions to Optics

Newton’s contributions were not limited to physics and mathematics. He also made significant advancements in the field of optics. His experiments with prisms led to the discovery that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors, which he described in his work “Opticks”. He also built the first practical reflecting telescope, known as the Newtonian telescope.

Isaac Newton’s contributions to science have shaped our understanding of the physical world. His laws of motion and universal gravitation laid the groundwork for classical physics, and his work in optics expanded our understanding of light and color. Despite personal hardships and the tumultuous times in which he lived, Newton’s relentless curiosity and dedication to scientific exploration cemented his place in history as one of the greatest scientists of all time. His legacy continues to inspire scientists and researchers, reminding us of the boundless possibilities of human intellect.

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The essay was so perfect but the date of birth is not same in 1st and 3rd essay.so may be the date of birth is wrong at in one essay.

Fixed, thanks.

Very nice and good essay

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Essay on Isaac Newton: The Father of Modern Science

• Updated on  
• Mar 15, 2024

Did you know Isaac Newton almost gave up on his education before discovering the laws of motion? Born in 1642, Isaac Newton was an English mathematician , physicist , astronomer, and author who is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists in history. He is known as the father of modern physics. He made significant contributions to various fields of science and mathematics, and his work laid the foundation for many scientific principles and discoveries. Let’s find out more about Isaac Newton with the essays written below.

Table of Contents

• 1 Things to keep in Mind while Writing Essay on Isaac Newton
• 2 Essay on Isaac Newton in 100 Words
• 3 Essay on Isaac Newton in 200 Words
• 4 Essay on Isaac Newton in 300 Words

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Things to keep in Mind while Writing Essay on Isaac Newton

• Isaac Newton was born on 4th January 1643.
• He is famous for discovering the phenomenon of white light integrated with colours which further presented as the foundation of modern physical optics.
• He is known for formulating the three laws of motion and the laws of gravitation which changed the track of physics all across the globe.
• In mathematics, he is known as the originator of calculus.
• He was knighted in 1705 hence, he came to be known as “Sir Isaac Newton”.

Essay on Isaac Newton in 100 Words

Issac Newton was an English scientist who made some groundbreaking discoveries in the field of science and revolutionized physics and mathematics. revolutionized physics and mathematics. He formulated the three laws of motion , defining how objects move and interact with forces. His law of universal gravitation explained planetary motion. Newton independently developed calculus, a fundamental branch of mathematics. 

Everybody knows Newton because of the apply story, in which he was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on him. His ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ remains a cornerstone of scientific thought. Newton’s profound insights continue to shape our understanding of the natural world.

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Essay on Isaac Newton in 200 Words

Born in 1642, Isaac Newton is one of the most influential scientists of all time. His groundbreaking contributions in physics, astronomy and mathematics helped reshape the understanding of the natural world. Our science books mention Newton’s three laws of motion which brought a revolution in physics.

• Newton’s first law of motion, also known as the law of inertia, states that an object will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.
• The second law of motion states that an object’s acceleration is produced by a net force that is directly proportional to the net force’s magnitude.
• The third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

All these laws laid the foundation for classical mechanics, revolutionizing the way we comprehend the physical world. He is known as the father of modern physics.

In mathematics, Newton developed calculus independently. His work in calculus was essential for solving complex mathematical problems, making it a cornerstone of modern mathematics and science.

His work ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ was published in 1687, and remains a monumental work that underpins modern science. His profound insights continue to shape our understanding of the universe, making Isaac Newton one of history’s most influential and celebrated scientists.

Essay on Isaac Newton in 300 Words

Isaac Newton was an English scientist who was known for his groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. Thanks to his discoveries of revolutionizing our understanding of the natural world. 

One of his well-known discoveries was the three laws of motion, also known as Newton’s three laws of motion. 

• The first law, known as the law of inertia, states that objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
• The second law quantifies how forces affect an object’s motion, introducing the famous equation F = ma (force equals mass times acceleration). 
• The third law, the law of action and reaction, explains that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

These laws provided a comprehensive framework for understanding and predicting the behaviour of physical objects, from the motion of planets to the fall of an apple.

Another groundbreaking achievement of Newton was the discovery of the universal law of gravitation. This law states that every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

It explained the mechanics of planetary motion and demonstrated that the same laws that govern objects on Earth also apply to celestial bodies, unifying the terrestrial and celestial realms.

In mathematics, Newton independently developed a powerful mathematical tool, called calculus, for analyzing rates of change and solving complex problems. His work laid the groundwork for modern calculus and transformed mathematics, physics, and engineering.

Newton’s magnum opus, “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), published in 1687, is a landmark work that brought together his laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. 

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Issac Newton was an English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, alchemist, author and physicist, was known for the discovery of the laws of gravity, and worked on the principles of visible light and the laws of motion.

Newton’s three laws of motion are: first law of motion (law of inertia), which states that an object will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force; The second law of motion states that an object’s acceleration is produced by a net force that is directly proportional to the net force’s magnitude; The third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Issac Newton is known as the father of modern physics and was associated with Cambridge University as a physicist and mathematician.

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With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Newton’s Philosophy

Isaac Newton (1642–1727) lived in a philosophically tumultuous time. He witnessed the end of the Aristotelian dominance of philosophy in Europe, the rise and fall of Cartesianism, the emergence of “experimental philosophy,” and the development of numerous experimental and mathematical methods for the study of nature. Indeed, he helped to develop many of those methods. Newton’s contributions to mathematics—including the co-discovery with G.W. Leibniz of what we now call the calculus—and to what is now called physics, including both its experimental and theoretical aspects, will forever dominate discussions of his lasting influence. His impact on the development of early modern philosophy was also profound; indeed, it is difficult to grasp the history of philosophy in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries without considering Newton’s role. His engagement with Cartesian ideas and methods early in his life was just as significant to the transformation of philosophy in the seventeenth century as his debates with Leibniz were to the setting of the agenda of philosophy in the eighteenth. Obviously, Newton is not part of the traditional philosophy canon of the period. That fact reflects an anachronistic approach to the history of modern philosophy that we have inherited from French and German scholars of the nineteenth century. During the height of the Enlightenment, Newton was always characterized as a canonical philosopher: for instance, he plays a leading role in the very first “modern” history of modern philosophy, Johann Jacob Brucker’s Historia Critica Philosophiae of 1744. Every major Enlightenment thinker, from Diderot to D’Alembert to Kant, was influenced by Brucker’s account of modern philosophy. In tandem, numerous works on “Newton’s philosophy” and his “philosophical discoveries” were published throughout the eighteenth century in every major European language. By the early nineteenth century, however, a separation between “science” and “philosophy” had been effectuated, which led to Newton’s shunting into the science canon. Recent scholarship has challenged this conception of the canon. Moreover, Newton engaged with, or influenced, many of the standardly canonical philosophers of the early modern era, including Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Leibniz and Kant. His influence on early modern philosophy is a rich topic.

1. Placing Newton in the history of natural philosophy

2. methodology i: the optics debates of the 1670s, 3. newton’s relation to cartesianism, 4. methodology ii: the principia, 5. the aftermath of the principia i: relations with john locke and richard bentley, 6. the aftermath of the principia ii: debates with leibniz, 7. newton’s impact on philosophy, other internet resources, related entries.

Traditionally, Newton would be characterized as a mathematician for his work on the calculus and as a scientist for his work in physics. His celebrated talent in mathematics is perhaps equaled not only by his profound theorizing concerning the physical world, but also his influential experimental methods. Indeed, Newton is remarkable for the fact that his work as a theoretician is matched by his work as an experimentalist—either aspect of his oeuvre would be sufficient to secure his place in the history of modern science. So in the popular imagination, and in the history books, Newton is seen as one of the greatest scientists of the modern period, on a par with few others (perhaps Darwin or Einstein). This view will continue to dominate our understanding of Newton in the twenty-first century.

If we attempt to understand Newton’s work from an historical point of view, however, a more complex conception emerges. When Newton published his principal works, he was not contributing to a well-established field, he was helping to create modern mathematical physics. This meant that few of his ideas, methods, or approaches, whether in mathematics or in experimental physics, could be taken for granted. From his first papers in the early 1670s, on optics, until his last days working on the third and final edition of his magnum opus the Principia decades later, philosophers, mathematicians and experimenters challenged Newton’s approach. This frequently upset Newton, who had a famous, lifelong aversion to intellectual debate and controversy. But in a sense, it helped to ensure the importance of Newton’s ideas for philosophy. Obviously, Newton never wrote a philosophical text on the order of Descartes’s Meditations , Locke’s Essay , or Spinoza’s Ethics . He never produced what the lumières who studied him would have called a “system” of philosophy. But the intense controversies produced by his mathematical, empirical and philosophical methods and ideas continually prompted him to broach philosophical topics (Janiak 2015). As a result, he was widely considered a leading philosopher throughout the Enlightenment. In the first modern history of philosophy, Brucker’s Historia Critica Philosophiae , Newton plays a central role in discussions of the modern era (Volume 4.2: 639-55). He is also a central figure in D’Alembert’s discussion of the emergence of modern science and philosophy: Newton is listed along with Bacon, Descartes, Locke and Leibniz as a key figure in the Preliminary Discourse (80-83).

The eighteenth-century tendency to discuss Newton’s philosophy , rather than his science , may have an odd ring to modern ears. In this case, however, the evolution of the English language tracks a substantive intellectual development. As a matter of historical fact, the category of the scientist—along with that word in English—is a nineteenth-century invention. Specifically, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in June of 1833, the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell coined the word “scientist”. Whewell said that just as the practitioners of art are called “artists”, the practitioners of science ought to be called “scientists”, indicating that they should no longer be called philosophers. [ 1 ] Indeed, before the early nineteenth century, people like Newton were called “philosophers”, or more specifically, “natural philosophers”. During the seventeenth century, and well into the eighteenth (at least until 1750, if not later), figures like Newton worked within the century’s old tradition of natural philosophy. [ 2 ] The modern disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology and so on, had not yet been formed. (The words ‘physics’ in English, ’physique’ in French, and ‘physica’ in Latin were often used, but had a very broad meaning, like “natural philosophy.”) Philosophers who studied nature investigated such things as planetary motions, the nature of matter, and the possibility of a vacuum, but they also discussed many aspects of human beings, including the psyche, and how nature reflects its divine creator (Hatfield 1996). As the title of Newton’s magnum opus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ), suggests, he intended his work to be in dialogue with Descartes’s Principia Philosophiae ( Principles of Philosophy , 1644). Descartes’s Principles is a complex text that includes discussions of everything from the laws of nature to the nature of God’s causal influence on the world. Descartes had famously promised that his physics required nothing more than the principles of geometry and pure mathematics ( Principles , Part Two, §64). Although Descartes was a great mathematician, the author of a major work in geometry in 1637, Newton thought nonetheless that he had not lived up to this promise, so he would assuredly introduce mathematical principles for natural philosophy. Just as Descartes had sought to replace Aristotelian or “Scholastic” methods and doctrines in natural philosophy, Newton sought to replace Descartes’s. It is therefore more historically accurate and more illuminating to interpret Newton within the historical stream of natural philosophy. [ 3 ]

As is well known, natural philosophy in the Aristotelian traditions of the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries involved an analysis of Aristotle’s ideas about the natural world, especially within the Christianized context of the medieval period. Philosophers studying nature were often actually studying texts—such as commentaries on Aristotle—rather than conducting experiments or engaging in observations, and they often did not employ mathematical techniques. Traditionally, natural philosophy in Aristotelian circles was not conceived of as a mathematical discipline (unlike, say, optics or astronomy); instead, it focused especially on the natures of objects and on causation. In the seventeenth century, natural philosophers like Galileo, Boyle, Descartes, and Newton began to reject not only the doctrines of the Aristotelians, but their techniques as well, developing a number of new mathematical, conceptual and experimental methods. Newton respected Descartes’s rejection of Aristotelian ideas, but argued that Cartesians did not employ enough of the mathematical techniques of Galileo, or the experimental methods of Boyle, in trying to understand nature. Of course, these developments have often been regarded as central to the Scientific Revolution. Despite the centrality of these changes during the seventeenth century, however, the scope of natural philosophy had not dramatically changed. Natural philosophers like Newton expended considerable energy trying to understand, e.g., the nature of space, time and motion, but they regarded that endeavor as a component of an overarching enterprise that also included an analysis of the divine being. Newton was a natural philosopher—unlike Descartes, he was not a founder of modern philosophy, for he never wrote a treatise of the order of the Meditations . Nonetheless, his influence on philosophy in the eighteenth century was profound, extending well beyond the bounds of philosophers studying nature, encompassing numerous figures and traditions in Britain, on the Continent, and even in the New World. [ 4 ] Newton’s influence has at least two salient aspects.

First, Newton’s achievement in the Opticks and in the Principia was understood to be of such philosophical import that few philosophers in the eighteenth century ignored it. Most of the canonical philosophers in this period sought to interpret various of Newton’s epistemic claims within the terms of their own systems, and many saw the coherence of their own views with those of Newton as a criterion of philosophical excellence. Early in the century, Berkeley grappled with Newton’s work on the calculus in The Analyst (1734) and with his dynamics in De Motu (1721), and he even mentioned gravity, the paradigmatic Newtonian force, in his popular work Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713). When Berkeley lists what philosophers take to be the so-called primary qualities of material bodies in the Dialogues , he remarkably adds “gravity” to the more familiar list of size, shape, motion, and solidity, thereby suggesting that the received view of material bodies had already changed before the second edition of the Principia had circulated widely. Remarkably, in that same year Roger Cotes, the editor of the second edition of Newton’s Principia, had argued in his editor’s preface that gravity should indeed be considered a primary quality along with the more familiar mechanist properties that had been the subject of so much discussion in previous years. (Newton himself approached the topic more cautiously.) For his part, Hume interpreted Newtonian natural philosophy in an empiricist vein and noted some of its broader implications in his Treatise of Human Nature (1739) and Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1750). Newton’s work also served as the impetus for the extremely influential correspondence between Leibniz and the Newtonian Samuel Clarke early in the century, a correspondence that proved significant even for thinkers writing toward the century’s end. Unlike the vis viva controversy and other disputes between the Cartesians and the Leibnizians, which died out by the middle of the century, the debate between the Leibnizians and the Newtonians remained philosophically salient for decades, serving as an impetus for Émilie Du Châtelet’s influential work during the French Enlightenment, Foundations of Physics (1740), and also as one of the driving forces behind Kant’s development of the “critical” philosophy during the 1770s, culminating in the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. In addition, Newton’s work spawned an immense commentarial literature in English, French, and Latin, including John Keill’s Introduction to Natural Philosophy (1726), Francesco Algarotti’s Newtonianism for the Ladies (1738), Henry Pemberton’s A View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy (1728), Voltaire’s Elements of the Philosophy of Newton (1738), Willem Gravesande’s Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy (1747), Colin MacLaurin’s An Account of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophical Discoveries (1748), and many more besides. Moreover, two subsequent Continental editions of Newton’s text contained substantial philosophical engagements not only with his own ideas, but with those of his potential rivals like the great mathematician Johan Bernoulli and also Leibniz. The famous “Jesuit” (or “Geneva”) edition of Principia mathematica published by Fathers Le Seur and Jacquier in 1739-1744 in three volumes engaged substantially with Leibnizian ideas (Guicciardini 2015). And Émilie Du Châtelet wrote an extensive “analytical commentary” as part of her complete French translation of the Principia , published posthumously in 1759. Part of the idea was to translate Newton’s old “geometric” approach to physics into the new language of analysis, a project that was intertwined with numerous philosophical issues. Newton’s ideas and methods in mathematics, physics and philosophy therefore continued to be of substantial importance well into the Enlightenment.

A second aspect of Newton’s influence involves thinkers who attempted in one way or another to articulate, follow, or extend, the Newtonian “method” in natural philosophy when treating issues and questions that Newton ignored. Euclidean geometry and its methods were seen as a fundamental epistemic model for much of seventeenth-century philosophy—as is well known, Descartes’ Meditations attempts to achieve a type of certainty he likens to that found in geometry, and Spinoza wrote his Ethics according to the “geometrical method”. Propositions deduced from axioms in Euclidean geometry were seen as paradigm cases of knowledge. We might see Newton’s work as providing eighteenth-century philosophy with one of its primary models, and with a series of epistemic exemplars as well. But part of philosophy’s task was to articulate precisely what the new Newtonian method involved. David Hume is perhaps clearest about this aspect of Newton’s influence: his Treatise of 1739 has the subtitle, “An Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects”, and there can be little doubt that he meant (at least in part) the method of the Opticks and the Principia (DePierris 2012). Indeed, as Hume’s text makes abundantly clear, various eighteenth-century philosophers, including not only Hume in Scotland but Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Continent, were taken to be, or attempted to become, “the Newton of the mind”. [ 5 ] For Hume, this meant following what he took to be Newton’s empirical method by providing the proper description of the relevant phenomena and then finding the most general principles that account for them. Of course, one aspect of Hume’s work is to provide an analysis of the concept of causation that is far more extensive than anything found in Newton, which has a substantial impact on what counts as an “account” of a phenomenon. This method would allow us to achieve the highest level of knowledge attainable in the realm of what Hume calls “matters of fact”. [ 6 ]

Despite the influence of Newton’s “method” on eighteenth-century philosophy, it is obvious that the Principia ’s greater impact on the eighteenth century is to have effected a branching within natural philosophy that led to the development of mathematical physics on the one hand, and philosophy on the other (Cohen and Smith, 2002, 1-4). And yet to achieve an understanding of how Newton himself approached natural philosophy, we must carefully bracket such historical developments—they did not solidify until sometime after 1750, a generation after Newton’s death. Indeed, if we resist the temptation to understand Newton as working within a well established discipline called mathematical physics, if we see him instead as a philosopher studying nature, his achievement is far more impressive, for instead of contributing to a well-founded field of physics, he had to begin a process that would eventually lead aspects of natural philosophy to be transformed into a new field of study. This transformation took many decades, involving a series of methodological and foundational debates about the proper means for obtaining knowledge about nature and its processes. Newton himself not only engaged in these debates from his very first publication in optics in 1672, but his work in both optics and in the Principia generated some of the most significant methodological discussions and controversies in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. These debates concerned such topics as the proper use of hypotheses, the nature of space and time, the best understanding of the forces of nature, and the appropriate rules for conducting research in natural philosophy. Newton’s achievement was in part to have vanquished both Cartesian and Leibnizian approaches to natural philosophy; in the later eighteenth century, and indeed much of the nineteenth, physics was a Newtonian enterprise more than anything. But this achievement, from Newton’s own perspective, involved an extensive, life-long series of philosophical debates. Those debates focused on numerous substantive issues, but also included extensive discussions of the proper methodology in natural philosophy.

Philosophers have long known about the aspects of Newton’s work that are salient for understanding debates in the early modern period. For instance, no history of debates about the ontology of space and time would exclude a discussion of Newton’s famous conception of “absolute” space (see below). Similarly, any discussion of the role of hypotheses in philosophical reasoning would mention Newton prominently. These aspects of Newton’s work continue to be significant in contemporary scholarship, but the scope of discussions of Newton has greatly expanded, encompassing the whole of his intellectual life. This is especially evident in discussions of Newton’s earliest published work, which was in the field of optics. In at least three relevant respects, Newton’s early work in optics, which was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society beginning in 1672, set the stage for the principal themes of his long career in natural philosophy (he remained active well into his seventies). Firstly, Newton’s letter to the Society’s secretary, Henry Oldenburg, often called the “New theory about light and colors”, generated an immediate, extensive, and protracted debate that eventually involved important philosophers such as Robert Hooke in Britain and Christiaan Huygens, G.W. Leibniz and Ignatius Pardies on the Continent (the beginning of the very long title of the paper is: “A letter of Mr. Isaac Newton, Mathematick Professor in the University of Cambridge, containing his New Theory about Light and Colors”). Newton consistently regarded these figures not merely as disagreeing with his views, but as misinterpreting them. This experience helped to shape Newton’s famous and lifelong aversion to intellectual controversy, a feature of his personality that he often mentioned in letters, and one that he would never outgrow. Secondly, because Newton regarded himself as having been deeply misinterpreted by his critics, he had recourse to meta-level or methodological discussions of the practice of optics and of the kinds of knowledge that philosophers can obtain when engaging in experiments with light. The novelty and power of Newton’s work in the Principia years later would eventually generate similar controversies that led him to analogous kinds of methodological discussions of his experimental practice within natural philosophy and of the kinds of knowledge that one can obtain in that field using either experimental or mathematical techniques. From our point of view, Newton’s science was unusually philosophical for these reasons. Thirdly and finally, in his earliest optical work Newton began to formulate a distinction that would remain salient throughout his long intellectual career, contending that a philosopher must distinguish between a conclusion or claim about some feature of nature that is derived from experimental or observational evidence, and a conclusion or claim that is a mere “hypothesis”, a kind of speculation about nature that is not, or not yet anyway, so derived. Newton’s much later proclamation in the second edition of the Principia (1713), “ Hypotheses non fingo ”, or “I feign no hypotheses”, would infuriate his critics just as much as it would prod his followers into making the pronouncement a central component of a newly emerging Newtonian method (see below for details).

The field of optics has its origins in the Ancient Greek period, when figures like Euclid and Ptolemy wrote works on the subject, but they often focused primarily on the science of vision, analyzing (e.g.) the visual rays that were sometimes thought to extrude from the eye, enabling it to perceive distant physical objects. In the early modern period, Kepler and Descartes each made fundamental contributions to the field, including the discovery of the inversion of the retinal image (in the former case) and an explanation of refraction (in the latter case). Newton’s work helped to shift the focus of optics from an analysis of vision to an investigation of light. In “New theory about light and colors”, published in the Philosophical Transactions in 1672, Newton presented a number of experiments in which sunlight was allowed to pass through one or two prisms in order to probe some of its basic features. The paper recounts a number of experiments that Newton says he had conducted several years earlier. But what precisely counts as a feature of light? Numerous philosophers during the seventeenth century, including Hooke and Huygens, developed doctrines concerning the fundamental physical nature of light in answer to the question: is light a stream of particles (or “corpuscles”), or a wave? Both Hooke and Huygens were wave theorists. This question obviously continued to have relevance into the twentieth century, when wave-particle duality was discovered. In his experiments with the prism, however, Newton apparently sought to investigate something else, viz. what he calls “the celebrated Phenomena of Colours ”. Newton’s various prism experiments, which he describes in considerable depth, suggested what he called a “Doctrine” that he expresses in thirteen consecutive numbered propositions. Included in these propositions are the following claims about features of rays of light: first, the rays of light that emerge when sunlight passes through a prism exhibit various colors; second, these colors differ in their “degrees of Refrangibility”, which means that they exhibit and retain an index of refraction, even when they are passed through a second prism; third, these colors—or colorful rays—are not modifications of sunlight itself, but are “ Original and connate properties ” of it; and, fourth, these facts mean that although ordinary sunlight appears white, or perhaps colorless, to our perception, it actually contains numerous colors within it, which can be experimentally revealed. This final point suggests, in turn, that from Newton’s point of view, colors are not solely perceived, or even perceptible, aspects of physical objects; they can also be conceived of as hidden features of light which cannot be perceived directly under any ordinary circumstance (the physical influence of the prism is required for them to become perceptible).

From a contemporary point of view, Newton’s 1672 paper exhibits an intriguing blend of experimental evidence and philosophical argumentation. The latter hinges on Newton’s interpretation of the concept of a property or a quality, as the following passage, which follows the “Doctrine” expressed in thirteen propositions, tellingly reveals:

These things being so, it can be no longer disputed, whether there be colours in the dark, nor whether they be the qualities of the objects we see, no nor perhaps, whether Light be a Body. For, since Colours are the qualities of Light, having its Rays for their entire and immediate subject, how can we think those Rays qualities also, unless one quality may be the subject of and sustain another; which in effect is to call it substance . We should not know Bodies for substances, were it not for their sensible qualities, and the Principal of those being now found due to something else, we have as good reason to believe that to be a substance also. (Newton 1959–, vol. 1: 100)

Newton seems here to be arguing as follows: since rays of light have colors as basic features, we should regard these colors as qualities or properties of the rays (despite the fact that these properties are imperceptible under any ordinary circumstance); but doing so requires us to think of the rays as bearers of qualities, which is to say, as substances in their own right. And if rays of light are substances, this means that we cannot also think of them as qualities or properties of anything else. This last point follows from a widely accepted notion of a substance at the time, one easily found in Descartes [ 7 ] , viz., that substances are those items that can exist independently of other items (whether they can exist independently even of God is a further question that we can ignore here). And if we cannot think of rays of light as properties or qualities, then they are not waves, for waves are features of some medium—think of waves on the surface of a lake. Newton concludes: light is a stream of particles (he does use the word ‘perhaps’ to hedge a bit here). Clearly, philosophical argumentation is a significant aspect of Newton’s reasoning in this paper, as are various philosophical concepts. It is intriguing to ponder the question, what overall conception of “sensible qualities” does Newton presuppose in this piece? If a ray of sunlight passes through my window, the fact that it appears white to me does not undermine Newton’s view (or so he thinks) that the ray actually contains a series of colors as its “qualities”. Are these qualities “sensible” if their presence can be detected only through the use of one or more prisms but never through the inspection of the sunlight through ordinary means (unaided perception, glasses, a magnifying glass, etc.)? These are apt to strike us as canonical philosophical problems.

Newton’s line of argument quoted above became one of the centerpieces of the debate that his paper generated. In some parts of his paper, when Newton wrote of the “rays” of light, he had evidently intended to remain neutral on the question of whether the rays are particles or waves (this is reminiscent of the ancient Greek practice of avoiding physical discussions of visual rays). But then towards the paper’s end, Newton added his new line of argument, which employed some philosophical analysis together with some experimental evidence to support the conclusion that rays of light cannot be waves after all. Newton’s critics pounced. This led to the first problem he encountered in response to his paper: what he calls his “theory” of light and colors was not merely rejected, but rather immediately misunderstood, at least from his own perspective. Just days after Newton’s paper was read at the Royal Society, Robert Hooke responded with a detailed letter to Oldenburg. In the first few sentences, Hooke indicates that from his point of view, Newton’s “Hypothesis of saving the phenomena of colours” essentially involves the contention that rays of light are particulate, rather than wavelike. [ 8 ] Hooke argues, in contrast, that light “is nothing but a pulse or motion propagated through an homogeneous, uniform and transparent medium;” that is, he argues that light is indeed wavelike. He makes it perfectly clear, moreover, that his hypothesis—the name did not carry a negative connotation in his work—can save the phenomena of colors just as well as Newton’s, which is to say, his hypothesis is compatible with the experimental evidence Newton had gathered. Evidently, the line of argument in the passage quoted above caught Hooke’s eye. Among philosophers, he was not alone. In a letter to Huygens explaining Newton’s theory of light, Leibniz writes that Newton takes light to be a “body” propelled from the sun to the earth which, according to Leibniz, Newton takes to explain both the differential refrangibility of rays of light and the phenomena of colors. [ 9 ] Since Newton had employed the concepts of substance, quality and sensible quality when concluding in his paper that light is (presumably) particulate, we are apt to regard the paper as contributing to important discussions within philosophy. After the extensive correspondence, and controversy, generated in response to Newton’s early optical views and experiments, he often threatened to avoid engaging in mathematical and philosophical disputes altogether. He insisted to friends and colleagues that he found intellectual controversy unbearable. But he never followed through with his threat to disengage from discussions in natural philosophy, sending many important letters throughout his long intellectual career.

Like many philosophers who worked in the wake of Galileo and of Descartes, it seems that Newton never extensively analyzed Aristotelian ideas about nature. He would have encountered such ideas in the curriculum at Trinity College, but there is not much evidence that he took them seriously. Instead, he focused on the “modern” thinkers that enterprising young students were told to read outside of the standard curriculum. [ 10 ] And in England in Newton’s day, the greatest modern philosopher of nature was thought to be Descartes (Heilbron 1982: 30). There is substantial evidence that Newton took Descartes’s ideas very seriously, and expended considerable energy thinking them through and eventually coming to criticize them. Some of that evidence comes from a manuscript that was first transcribed and published in 1962 by the great historians of science, Marie Boas Hall and A. Rupert Hall. The untitled manuscript, now known as “ De Gravitatione ” after its first line, has been the subject of extensive discussions over the past fifty years because it indicates the depth of Newton’s interest in Cartesian ideas in metaphysics and natural philosophy. Despite its importance to contemporary understandings of Newton’s relation to Cartesianism, and much else besides, De Gravitatione is not without its problems. First and foremost, the manuscript lacks a date, and there is no scholarly consensus regarding its precise provenance. [ 11 ] Second, the manuscript was never finished, so it is difficult to assess its relationship with Newton’s mature thinking in philosophy. Finally, the manuscript was not published during Newton’s lifetime, so there are questions about whether it represents his considered views. Despite these facts, the text contains a treasure trove of arguments concerning Cartesian ideas. For instance, it dispels the easily formed impression that Newton sought, in the Principia , to undermine a Leibnizian conception of space and time, as his defender, Samuel Clarke, would attempt to do years later in the correspondence of 1715–16 (discussed below). Although Leibniz did eventually express what became the canonical early modern formulation of “relationalism” concerning space and time—the view, roughly, that space is nothing but the order of relations among physical objects, and time nothing over and above the succession of events involving those objects—and although Newton and Clarke were highly skeptical of such a view, it is misleading to read the Principia through the lens provided by the later controversy with the Leibnizians. Newton’s extensive attempt in De Gravitatione to refute Descartes’s conception of space and time in particular indicates that the Scholium should be read as providing a replacement for the Cartesian conception. [ 12 ] That is, Newton had a Cartesian, and not a Leibnizian, opponent primarily in mind when he wrote his famous articulation of “absolutism” concerning space and time. Unlike questions about Newton’s methods and his apparent deviation from the norms established by mechanist philosophers like Descartes and Boyle, Newton’s conception of space and time, along with his view of the divine being, did not immediately engender a philosophical debate. It was Leibniz more than any other philosopher who eventually succeeded in fomenting a philosophical debate in which the “Newtonian” conception of space, time and the divine would play a central role (see below). But Leibniz’s philosophical views were relatively unknown when Newton first formed his conception--to the young Newton writing the Principia , Leibniz was another mathematician and not yet a contributor to natural philosophy. Instead, it was Descartes’s view of space, the world, and God, which he pondered in his youth and eventually came to reject.

Newton took special interest in the Cartesian view of space and body, and in related views concerning the causal relations between minds and bodies and between God and the bodies that constitute the natural world. Like many of Newton’s contemporaries in Cambridge in those days, he encountered these Cartesian views within the context of Henry More’s then famous discussions of Cartesianism (a term coined by More himself). Beginning with his correspondence with Descartes in 1648 (Lewis 1953), and continuing with a series of publications in later years, many of which Newton owned in his personal library (Harrison 1978), More argued that Descartes made two fundamental mistakes: first, he wrongly contended that extension and matter are identical (and that the world is therefore a plenum); and second, he mistakenly believed that God and the mind were not extended substances, which made their causal interactions with such substances mysterious. Just as Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia had raised fundamental objections to Cartesian dualism (see Shapiro 2007) in the early 1640s, More raised similar objections against the Cartesian view of the divine a few years later (Lewis 1953). Descartes agreed with More’s suggestion that God can act anywhere on nature if he so chooses, and came very close to accepting More’s contention that such a view entails that God must be present within the world wherever he in fact chooses to act. For how could God part the Red Sea, suggested More, unless God were present precisely where the Red Sea is located? Of course, More agreed that God is not made of parts, cannot be imagined, and cannot be affected by the causal activity of material bodies—the causal arrow flows only in one direction. But More concluded that God is extended in his own way. If one fixes Descartes’s two basic mistakes, one obtains what More regarded as a proper philosophical view: space is distinct from matter because it is extended but penetrable, whereas matter is extended but impenetrable; and, in tandem, all substances are extended, but whereas some, such as tables and chairs, are impenetrable, others, such as the mind and God, are penetrable and therefore not material. [ 13 ] Newton was deeply influenced both by More’s criticisms of Descartes and by his positive philosophical conception of space and the divine.

In a number of texts, including De Gravitatione , the famous discussion of space and time in the Scholium to the Principia , and the discussion of God in the General Scholium, Newton made his generally Morean attitudes perfectly clear. He rejected the Cartesian identification of extension and matter, arguing that space itself exists independently of material objects (and their relations), and he contended that all entities, including the human mind and even the divine being, are extended in the sense that they have spatial location, even if they are extended in ways that distinguish them from ordinary material bodies. [ 14 ] In Newton’s hands, space becomes a fundamental concept of natural philosophy, an attitude that is foreign to Cartesians. As Newton puts it in a famous passage from De Gravitatione :

Space is an affection of a being just as a being. No being exists or can exist which is not related to space in some way. God is every where, created minds are somewhere, and body is in the space that it occupies; and whatever is neither everywhere nor anywhere does not exist. And hence it follows that space is an emanative effect of the first existing being, for if any being whatsoever is posited, space is posited. (Newton 2004: 25)

Space is a fundamental concept in part because Newton not only conceives of it as independent of objects and their relations, but because he argues that every entity must somehow connect with space in some way. For Newton, then, if one follows the Cartesians and thinks of the mind, or of God, as existing without any spatial location—as existing either “beyond” the natural world or somehow outside of it—then that is equivalent to conceiving of them as non-existent. Newton does not shy away from making this conception of the divine explicit in his public writings, despite the fact that it was anathema to his Cartesian and Leibnizian contemporaries. In the General Scholium to the Principia , which was added to the second edition of the text in 1713, for instance, he famously writes of God:

He endures always and is present everywhere, and by existing always and everywhere he constitutes duration and space. Since each and every particle of space is always , and each and every indivisible moment of duration is everywhere , certainly the maker and lord of all things will not be never or nowhere … God is one and the same God always and everywhere. He is omnipresent not only virtually but also substantially ; for active power cannot subsist without substance. (Newton 1999: 941)

For Newton, just as bodies are present in some spatial location, God, an infinite being, is present throughout all of space throughout all of time. There could not be a clearer expression of agreement with More in his debate with the Cartesians concerning the substantial presence of the divine within space.

Newton also took issue with Cartesian ideas about motion. His rejection of Cartesian views of space, and his embrace of space as a fundamental concept in philosophy following More’s influence, aligns with his famous discussion of space and time in the Scholium that follows the opening definitions in the Principia . This text influenced nearly every subsequent philosophical discussion of space and time for the next three centuries, so its contours are well known (see DiSalle 2006: ch. 2). In his Principles of Philosophy of 1644, Descartes had distinguished between the “ordinary” and the “proper” view of motion: whereas the ordinary view presents motion as a body’s change of place, the philosopher knows that properly speaking, motion is a body’s change of relations to the bodies that surround it (recall Descartes’s plenum). Newton contends in De Gravitatione that this idea of proper motion, according to which the motion of a body is at least partially a function of its relations to other bodies, is in tension with Descartes’s own laws of nature, also presented in the Principles . For according to the conception of (what we now call) inertia that Descartes presents as his first two laws, a body moving rectilinearly will continue to do so unless caused to deviate from its path—hence a body’s motion is not a function of its spatial relations to other bodies, but rather of its causal relations. That is, according to the first two laws, changing a body’s spatial relations to others bodies will not alter its rectilinear motion unless a causal interaction occurs. This tension runs deep in the Cartesian system. Newton’s Scholium reflects his idea that the concept of motion in the Principia ought to cohere with the laws of motion he endorses. He distinguishes between absolute and relative motion, true and apparent motion, and mathematical and common motion (the same distinctions hold for time, space and place). The former item in each of these three pairings is a concept that coheres with the laws of motion. Newton’s first law reflects Descartes’s laws: it is a new version of the principle of inertia, one incorporating the concept of an impressed force. Since this law indicates that a body’s motion is not a function of its spatial relations to other bodies, but rather of whether forces are impressed on it—which replaces the Cartesian concept of causal interactions that involve only impact (see below)—Newton cannot rely on a body’s motion relative to other bodies if he is to avoid the kind of tension he found in the Cartesian view. Hence he indicates that a body’s true motion—rather than its apparent motion, which depends on our perceptions, or its relative motion, which depends on its spatial relations—is a body’s change of position within space itself. That is, true motion should be understood as absolute motion. This means, in turn, that we must distinguish between the common idea of space, according to which space is conceived of as involving relations among various objects (like the space of our air), and the mathematical idea, one presumably obtained from geometrical reasoning, that space is independent of any objects or their relations. In order to account for the idea that true motion is absolute motion, then, the famous “absolute space” is postulated.

Newton was perfectly well aware that the notion of absolute space is not unproblematic. [ 15 ] For instance, if a body’s true motion just is its absolute motion, its motion with respect to space itself, then the imperceptibility of space would appear to render any detection of true motion difficult, if not hopeless. Indeed, how would we detect any body’s true motion on this view? We might be able to detect a body’s changing spatial relations with its neighbors, but not its changing relationship with space itself! Newton’s solution to this problem is ingenious. Under certain circumstances, we can detect a body’s true motion by detecting its acceleration. We can do so when the body is rotating or has a circular motion, for such motions often have detectable effects. This is one way of understanding what has become one of the most famous, if not infamous, experiments of the early modern period, Newton’s bucket. (He grew up in part on a farm in the English countryside, and often used deceptively simple examples.) If one takes an ordinary bucket and fills it with water, and then attaches a rope to the top of the bucket, one can then twist the rope and let it go in order to make the bucket spin. When the bucket full of water spins around, we can detect the water’s acceleration by its changing surface. As Newton puts it, using his laws of motion, the water endeavors to recede from the axis of its motion (hence its changing surface). But even an observer untutored in physics would grasp the importance of the water’s changing surface--that is, perceiving the effect does not depend on understanding the laws. In this way, despite the fact that Newton wishes to conceive of the water’s true motion as its absolute motion within space itself, which cannot be perceived, he shows his readers how they might detect the water’s true motion through its effects. Newton provides another simple experiment to illustrate a similar point. If two balls are joined together by a rope and then spun around, say over one’s head, then the changing tension in the rope will indicate that the balls are accelerated. Since any acceleration is a true motion—although not all true motions are accelerations, since a so-called inertial motion is not—this case indicates that we can detect a body’s true motion even though space itself is imperceptible. In this way, Newton did not merely develop an alternative to the Cartesian view of motion, along with its allied conception of space; he presented a view that could be employed to pick out some of the true motions of objects within nature. Once one has found a true motion, one can then ask what caused that motion (for Newton, as we will see, it is forces that are understood to cause motions). As the last line of the Scholium in the Principia indicates, that is one reason that Newton wrote his magnum opus in the first place.

Newton’s idea of space, then, fulfilled at least two roles. First, it enabled him to avoid the tension between the concept of true motion and the laws of motion of the kind found in Descartes. Second, it also enabled him to articulate what he took to be God’s relation to the natural world. Many regarded his achievements as an important advance over the Cartesian system. However, it would be a mistake to think that Newton vanquished Cartesian ideas within his lifetime: even in England, and certainly on the Continent, Cartesianism remained a powerful philosophical force for several decades after Newton published his primary works. [ 16 ] Typically, however, Descartes’s followers emphasized the importance of his ideas about the mechanisms that pervade nature rather than his views of space and time. In that arena, Newton’s views were especially prominent, and came in for significant criticism from Leibniz.

Many legends concerning momentous events in history are apocryphal, but the legend of Halley’s visit to Newton in 1684 is not: it explains what prompted Newton to write his magnum opus . In August of 1684, Edmond Halley—for whom the comet is named—came to visit Newton in Cambridge in order to discover his opinion about a subject of much dispute in celestial mechanics. At this time, many in the Royal Society and elsewhere were at work on a cluster of problems that might be described as follows: how can one take Kepler’s Laws, which were then considered among the very best descriptions of the planetary orbits, and understand them in the context of dynamical or causal principles? What kind of cause would lead to planetary orbits of the kind described by Kepler? In particular, Halley asked Newton the following question: what kind of curve would a planet describe in its orbit around the Sun if it were acted upon by an attractive force that was inversely proportional to the square of its distance from the Sun? Newton immediately replied that the curve would be an ellipse (rather than, say, a circle). [ 17 ] Halley was amazed that Newton had the answer at the ready. But Newton also said that he had mislaid the paper on which the relevant calculations had been made, so Halley left empty handed (whether there was any such paper is a subject of dispute). But he would not be disappointed for long. In November of that year, Newton sent Halley a nine-page paper, entitled De Motu (on motion), that presented the sought-after demonstration, along with several other advances in celestial mechanics. Halley was delighted, and immediately returned to Cambridge for further discussion. It was these events that precipitated the many drafts of De Motu that eventually became Principia mathematica by 1686. Several aspects of the Principia have been central to philosophical discussions since its first publication, including Newton’s novel methodology in the book, his conception of space and time, and his attitude toward the dominant orientation within natural philosophy in his day, the so-called mechanical philosophy, which had important methodological consequences.

When Newton wrote the Principia between 1684 and 1686, he was not contributing to a preexisting field of study called mathematical physics; he was attempting to show how philosophers could employ various mathematical and experimental methods in order to reach conclusions about nature, especially about the motions of material bodies (Janiak 2015, Chapter One). In his lectures presented as the Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, Newton had been arguing since at least 1670 that natural philosophers ought to employ geometrical methods in order to understand various phenomena in nature. [ 18 ] The Principia represented his attempt to reorient natural philosophy, taking it in a direction that neither his Aristotelian predecessors, nor his Cartesian contemporaries, had envisioned. He did not immediately convince many of them of the benefits of his approach. Just as his first publication in optics in 1672 sparked an intense debate about the proper methods for investigating the nature of light—and much else besides—his Principia sparked an even longer lasting discussion about the methodology that philosophers should adopt when studying the natural world. This discussion began immediately with the publication of the Principia , despite the fact that its first edition contained few explicit methodological remarks (Smith 2002: 138–39). It intensified considerably with the publication of its second edition in 1713, which contained many more remarks about methodology, including many attempts at defending the Newtonian method. Indeed, many of Newton’s alterations in that edition changed the presentation of his methods. Discussions of methodology would eventually involve nearly all of the leading philosophers in England and on the Continent during Newton’s lifetime.

In Cartesian natural philosophy, all natural change is due to the impacts that material bodies make upon one another’s surfaces (this is reflected in Descartes’s first two laws of nature). The concept of a force plays little if any role. Unlike Descartes, Newton placed the concept of a force at the very center of his thinking about motion and its causes within nature. In that regard, his reactions to the shortcomings of Cartesian natural philosophy parallel Leibniz’s, who coined the term “dynamics”, and who obviously regarded force as a fundamental concept in metaphysics as well (Westfall 1971). But Newton’s attitude toward understanding the forces of nature involved an especially intricate method that generated intense scrutiny and debate amongst many philosophers and mathematicians, including Leibniz (Garber 2012). Newton’s canonical notion of a force, which he calls a vis impressa or “impressed force”, is the notion of an “action exerted on a body” that changes its state of motion. This was a confusing notion at the time. Perhaps it is not difficult to see why that should be so. To take one of Newton’s own examples: suppose I hit a tennis ball with my racquet—according to Newton, I have impressed a force on the tennis ball, for I have changed its state of motion (hopefully!). We have a reasonably good idea of what the tennis ball is, of what the racquet is, and even of what I am, and a Cartesian might wish to stop her analysis there. But what exactly is this “force” that I impressed on the tennis ball? The ball, the racquet and I are physical things of one sort or another, but is the force physical? Is it not physical? It does not seem likely that a force is itself a physical thing in the sense of being a substance, to use a philosophical notion popular in Newton’s day (as we saw above in his first optics paper). The reason is that in Definition Four in the Principia , which defines an impressed force for the first time, Newton remarks: “This force consists solely in the action and does not remain in a body after the action has ceased”. So when I hit the tennis ball over the net, the force I impressed on it was the action of hitting the ball, or an action associated with hitting the ball, and not a property of me or of the ball after the action had ceased. This idea confused many of Newton’s readers. By the mid-eighteenth century, the time of Hume’s analysis of causation in the Treatise and the Enquiry , many philosophers started to think that actions and other kinds of event are important items to have in one’s ontology, and they often contended in particular that causal relations hold between events . But in Newton’s day, philosophers typically regarded objects or substances as the causal relata. Indeed, one actually finds an equivocation between thinking of events and thinking of objects as the relevant causal relata even in Hume: in his Enquiry , he first defines a “cause” so that “objects” are the causal relata, but then gives an example in which one of the relata is the vibration of a string ( Enquiry , §VII, 51). So actions were difficult to analyze, left out of analyses, or conflated with objects. As a result, Newton’s conception of force proved confusing, even to his most sympathetic interpreters. Moreover, it was unclear to many of Newton’s mechanist readers how his forces fit into their rather austere ontological view that material bodies consist solely of properties such as size, shape, mobility and solidity.

Newton did try to clarify his method of characterizing forces. If one brackets the question of how to understand forces as ephemeral actions that do not persist after causal interactions have ceased, one can make progress by conceiving of forces as quantities . In particular, since Newton’s eight definitions and three laws indicate that forces are proportional to mass and to acceleration, and since mass—or the quantity of matter, a concept Newton transformed from its Cartesian origins, where it was understood as a measure of a body’s volume—and acceleration are both quantities that can be measured, Newton gives us a means of measuring forces. This is crucial to his method. If one thinks of forces as measurable quantities, moreover, then one can attempt to identify two seemingly disparate forces as in fact the same force through thinking about measuring them. For instance, in Book III of the Principia , Newton famously argues in proposition five and its scholium that the centripetal force maintaining the planetary orbits is in fact the same as the force of gravity, viz., the force that causes the free fall of objects on earth. This was a revolutionary idea at the time, one rendered possible in the first place by Newton’s way of thinking about forces as quantities. This idea then led Newton to the even more revolutionary view in proposition seven of Book III that all bodies gravitate toward one another in proportion to their quantity of matter. That is, it led him to the idea of universal gravity, a view that shocked many of his Continental readers in its boldness. This helped to unify what were once called superlunary and sublunary phenomena, a unification that was obviously crucial for later research in physics. The idea was enabled by Newton’s abstract way of understanding forces—without conceiving of a force as involving any specific mechanism or type of physical interaction, Newton thought of forces as quantities that are proportional to other features of nature.

Despite his evident success in obtaining what we now call the law of universal gravitation, Newton admits that he lacks another kind of knowledge about gravity; this lack of knowledge directly reflects an aspect of his abstract characterization of forces. In the General Scholium, he reminds his readers that gravity is proportional to a body’s quantity of matter (its mass) and reaches across vast distances within our solar system, adding: “I have not as yet been able to deduce from phenomena the reason for these properties of gravity, and I do not feign hypotheses”. [ 19 ] With this phrase, one of the most famous in all of Newton’s writings, he returned to a key theme of his very first optical paper from forty years earlier, viz. the proper role of hypotheses and of hypothetical reasoning within natural philosophy. [ 20 ] Some of Newton’s interpreters have regarded this phrase as signaling a strong commitment to the broad doctrine that all hypotheses concerning natural phenomena ought to be avoided in principle. This interpretation is sometimes coupled with the view that some British philosophers in the late seventeenth century regarded Cartesianism as overly reliant on hypotheses in reaching conclusions about phenomena. But this interpretation may be hard to square with Newton’s texts. For instance, in the Scholium to Proposition 96 of Book I of the Principia , Newton discusses hypotheses concerning light rays. Similarly, in query 21 of the Opticks , he proposes that there might be an aether whose differential density accounts for the gravitational force acting between bodies. In light of such examples, one can read the General Scholium’s pronouncement in this way: a philosopher concerned with explaining some feature of nature—such as the fact that gravity is inversely proportional to the square of spatial separation, rather than, say, the cube —may legitimately entertain and propose hypotheses for consideration, but she may not “feign” the hypothesis in the sense of taking it as having been established either through experiment, observation, or some form of reasoning (including mathematical reasoning). Hence Newton thinks that he has established the fact that gravity acts on all material bodies in proportion to their quantity of matter, but he has not established the existence of the aether. What, then, does Newton’s slogan hypotheses non fingo actually rule out? By the time of the General Scholium, Newton was increasingly embroiled in philosophical disputes with Leibniz. After reading the copy of the Principia that Newton had sent him, Leibniz wrote an essay (“Tentamen”) on the causes of planetary motion for the famous journal Acta Eruditorum . In order to account for the motions of the planetary bodies in his Tentamen, published in 1689, Leibniz introduces ex hypothesi the premise that some kind of fluid surrounds, and is contiguous to, the various planetary bodies, and then argues that this fluid must be in motion to account for their orbits. [ 21 ] Newton may have argued that Leibniz had “feigned” the hypothesis of the vortices. That is, he would have objected to Leibniz’s conclusion that there must be vortices in the solar system (as opposed to the suggestion, for instance, that we try to detect their presence through observations of things like comets). A debate between the two philosophers on this score would bring them to the question of the mechanical philosophy: whereas Newton would object to Leibniz’s reasoning on methodological grounds, Leibniz would reply that Newton’s theory of gravity involves action at a distance, which his vortex hypothesis avoids (see below for more details).

Once the Principia was published, Newton had a vexed relationship with the mechanical philosophy, an orientation within natural philosophy that is associated with nearly every significant early modern philosopher, including Descartes, Boyle, Huygens, Leibniz, and Locke. [ 22 ] One of the reasons for this complex relationship can be understood if we consider Newton’s attitude toward forces in an abstract way. His second law indicates that a body moving rectilinearly will continue to do so unless a force is impressed on it. This is not equivalent to claiming that a body moving rectilinearly will continue to do so unless another body impacts upon it. A vis impressa —an impressed force—in Newton’s system is not the same as a body, nor even a quality of a body, as we have seen; but what is more, some impressed forces need not involve contact between bodies at all. For instance, gravity is a kind of centripetal force, and the latter, in turn, is a species of impressed force. Hence a body moving in a straight line will continue to do so until it experiences a gravitational pull, in which case it will deviate from a straight line motion, even if no body impacts upon it. Indeed, the gravitational pull might originate with a mass that is millions of miles away. As we have seen, an impressed force is an action exerted on a body. Hence the gravity exerted on a moving body is an action (the Latin term is actio ), which is obviously a causal notion. This is not an empirical claim per se ; it is merely a reflection of Newton’s laws, together with his notion of an impressed force, and his further idea that gravity is one kind of impressed force. These elements of the Principia make conceptual room for a causal interaction between two bodies separated by a vast distance, one enabled by Newton’s concept of an impressed force. Aspects of this idea became known in philosophical circles as the problem of action at a distance (Hesse 1961). Many of Newton’s most influential contemporaries objected vigorously to the fact that his philosophy had made room for—if not explicitly defended—the possibility of distant action between material bodies. Leibniz and Huygens in particular rejected this aspect of Newton’s work in the strongest terms, and it remained a point of contention between Newton and Leibniz for the rest of their lives. Both Leibniz and Huygens were convinced that all natural change occurs through contact action, and that any deviation from this basic mechanist principle within natural philosophy would lead to serious difficulties, including the revival of outmoded Aristotelian ideas. By the seventh proposition of Book III of the Principia , as we have seen, Newton reached the following conclusion (1999: 810): “Gravity acts on all bodies universally and is proportional to the quantity of matter in each”. Leibniz eventually accused Newton of regarding gravity as a kind of “occult quality”, that is, as a quality of bodies that is somehow hidden within them and beyond the philosopher’s understanding. They understood Newton to be saying that gravity is a kind of hidden power to attract embedded in material bodies.

Newton was well aware that the Principia’s methodology of discovering the forces present in nature was controversial, and not merely because of questions about action at a distance. So when he revised the text, under the editorship of Roger Cotes, for publication in a second edition in 1713, he added other methodological remarks. These remarks included what Newton called “ regulae philosophandi ”, or rules of philosophy, which became the focal point of vigorous discussion and debate well into the eighteenth century. The first two rules concern causal reasoning, but it is the third rule that generated the most debate, for it involved both an aspect of Newton’s controversial argument for universal gravity and also a rare public statement by Newton of what he regarded as the “foundation” of natural philosophy. The third rule concerns an induction problem: we have perceptions and experiments that provide us with knowledge of the objects and natural phenomena in our neck of the universe, but on what basis can we reach a conclusion concerning objects and phenomena throughout the rest of the universe? Newton himself reached such a conclusion about gravity in proposition seven of Book III of the Principia . Part of Newton’s answer is presented in rule 3:

Those qualities of bodies that cannot be intended and remitted [i.e., increased and diminished] and that belong to all bodies on which experiments can be made should be taken as qualities of all bodies universally.

We know, say, that a clump of dirt has certain qualities such as extension and mobility, but how do we know that the entire earth has such qualities? It surely lies beyond the reach of our experiments, or at any rate, it did in Newton’s day. Newton says that the sun and the earth interact according to his law of gravity, but how do we know that the sun contains a quantity of matter, that it is a material body with the same basic qualities that characterize the earth or the moon? It wasn’t at all obvious at the time that the sun is a material body at all. Newton thinks that gravity reaches into the very center of the sun, but what did anyone in 1713 know about such things? Newton glosses his third rule in part as follows, connecting it with his laws of motion:

That all bodies are movable and persevere in motion or in rest by means of certain forces (which we call forces of inertia) we infer from finding these properties in the bodies that we have seen. The extension, hardness, impenetrability, mobility, and force of inertia [ 23 ] of the whole arise from the extension, hardness, impenetrability, mobility and force of inertia of each of the parts; and thus we conclude that every one of the least parts of all bodies is extended, hard, impenetrable, movable, and endowed with a force of inertia. And this is the foundation of all natural philosophy. (Newton 1999: 795–96)

Many of Newton’s readers in 1713 would have granted him the following inference: although we do not have any perceptions of, say, the interior of the earth, or even of many ordinary objects within our grasp, we can reasonably infer that everything with certain basic properties—something akin to what John Locke, borrowing a term of Robert Boyle’s, called the “primary qualities”—at the macroscopic level is comprised of micro-particles that are characterized by those same basic properties. But at the end of his gloss of Rule 3, Newton applies this same (or analogous) reasoning to the force of gravity, arguing as follows: since we experience the fact that all bodies on or near the earth gravitate toward the earth—in cases such as free fall—and that the moon gravitates toward the earth, etc., we can infer that all bodies everywhere gravitate toward all other bodies. This argument would appear to suggest that gravity—which, as we have seen, is a kind of impressed force, an action—is somehow akin to qualities like extension and impenetrability. So is Newton suggesting that gravity is actually a quality of all bodies? He did not explicitly endorse that claim, but Cotes did in a famous passage in his editor’s preface (Newton 1999, 391-92). Many understood Cotes to be speaking for Newton, just as they interpreted Clarke a few years later. Leibniz and his followers pounced: if Newton regards gravity as a quality, as a power of attraction, then he had indeed revived the occult qualities of the Scholastics, for here we have a quality that is not explicable in mechanical terms. Unlike the usual properties of extension, impenetrability and mobility discussed by Cotes, gravity seemed like a hidden power. This topic became the subject of intense debate throughout the first half of the eighteenth century (see the last section below).

Although the first editions of Newton’s Principia and of Locke’s Essay were published a mere three years apart (in 1687 and 1690, respectively) their authors worked independently and did not influence the first editions of one another’s principal texts. But then in 1688, Locke wrote a sympathetic (anonymous) review of the Principia . And right around the time of the publication of the first edition of the Essay , Newton and Locke became close friends and apparently influenced each other’s thinking about philosophy, religion, and theology in various ways (they first met in London in 1689). For his part, Locke called him the “incomparable Mr. Newton” on several occasions (e.g., in correspondence: Locke 1823: vol. 4: 55; and the next long quotation below). Most historians think that each questioned the standard Anglican interpretation of the Trinity, contending that Jesus of Nazareth was not a divine figure on the same level as God the creator. Interpreting the Bible through historical and philosophical analysis in a fashion that was not constrained by standard Anglican doctrine in the late seventeenth century was fantastically important to Newton, occupying his attention for many years. Given their controversial and politically sensitive nature, his so-called anti-Trinitarian views were largely kept secret among a small circle of friends. However, Newton trusted Locke enough to send him a very long letter—entitled “Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture”—to present him with the evidence for Newton’s view that the original version of Christianity was corrupted beginning in the 4 th century by the introduction of the doctrine of the Trinity (Newton 1959–, vol. 3: 83–129). Locke was apparently sympathetic with Newton’s approach. With respect to their public views, Newton and Locke were often taken to represent two aspects of the same experimental-philosophical approach toward the close of the seventeenth century (Stein 1990; Wilson 1999: 196–214; and Domski 2012). It is perhaps not difficult to understand why, for Newton was mentioned in one of the most famous passages in all of Locke’s writings. In the Epistle to the reader of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding , we read:

The Commonwealth of Learning, is not at this time without Master-Builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity; but every one must not hope to be a Boyle, or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces such masters, as the great Huygenius, and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some other of that strain; ’tis ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish, that lies in the way to knowledge; which certainly had been very much more advanced in the world, if the endeavors of ingenious and industrious men had not been much cumbred with the learned but frivolous use of uncouth, affected, or unintelligible terms, introduced into the sciences, and there made an art of, to that degree, that philosophy, which is nothing but the true knowledge of things, was thought unfit, or uncapable to be brought into well-bred company, and polite conversation. (Locke 1975: 10)

Clearly, Locke seeks in this passage, among other things, to align his work in the Essay with the work of figures such as Newton. Here we find, at the opening of Locke’s magnum opus, the suggestion that he is content to be an “under-labourer”, a thinker who helps to clear the way for the advance of knowledge. But his list of four “master builders”—Boyle, Sydenham, Huygens, and Newton—might strike us as an odd pairing: what do these four have in common exactly? It has recently been argued that Locke regarded the four as representing the new “experimental philosophy”, and that Locke himself should be interpreted as strongly supporting that orientation within natural philosophy more generally (Anstey 2011: 220). This would become a popular conception of Newton’s philosophical approach, one that played a substantial role in the Enlightenment.

Locke may have regarded Newton as a fellow enthusiast for the experimental philosophy, but there are reasons to think that his embrace of the mechanical philosophy presented him with a difficulty in interpreting the consequences of Newton’s theory of universal gravity in the Principia . For Newton’s theory seemed to be in tension with a mechanist constraint on views of causation, at least from Locke’s own point of view. In the first edition of the Essay , Locke articulated a central tenet of mechanist thinking about causation when he wrote: “bodies operate by impulse and nothing else” ( Essay , II.viii.11). Impulse refers here to contact action. In correspondence with Locke that would prove to be influential, Bishop Edward Stillingfleet questioned this view from the Essay , contending that Locke must jettison the idea of human liberty if he insists that bodies can operate solely by impulse, presumably on the grounds that the human will cannot be understood to cause bodily action in that manner. In a famous exchange, Locke responded in part by reformulating his commitment to the mechanist view that all causation involving material bodies must be by contact (impulse) alone:

It is true, I say, that ‘bodies operate by impulse and nothing else’. And so I thought when I writ it, and can yet conceive no other way of their operation. But I am since convinced by the judicious Mr. Newton’s incomparable book, that it is too bold a presumption to limit God’s power, in this point, by my narrow conceptions. The gravitation of matter toward matter by ways inconceivable to me, is not only a demonstration that God can, if he pleases, put into bodies, powers and ways of operations, above what can be derived from our idea of body, or can be explained by what we know of matter, but also an unquestionable and every where visible instance, that he has done so. And therefore in the next edition of my book, I shall take care to have that passage rectified. (Locke 1823: vol. 4: 467–8).

This was not merely his privately held view. For instance, near the beginning of his Elements of Natural Philosophy , Locke writes:

Two bodies at a distance will put one another into motion by the force of attraction; which is inexplicable by us, though made evident to us by experience, and so to be taken as a principle in natural philosophy. (Locke 1823: vol. 3: 305)

In this way, Locke held the common view that Newton’s theory of universal gravity was incompatible with the mechanical philosophy—and perhaps, unintelligible to us for that very reason—and when forced to choose between these two options, he evidently sided with Newton, thinking that his theory was supported by “experience”. He did so by endorsing the view that God must have added “powers” or “ways of operations” to material bodies that cannot be derived from our idea of body. Such powers or ways of operations would in this case result in gravitational interactions, presumably amongst bodies that are spatially separated from one another by great distances. Yet from Locke’s point of view, the fact that Newton’s theory convinces him that such powers exist does not entail that that theory renders gravity “conceivable”: even if the theory of universal gravity is correct, it does not allow us to understand how matter—what Locke would call “extended solid substance”—can interact gravitationally with other matter when the bits of matter are not in contact with one another (Downing 1997). So Locke has concluded that bodies can operate on one another through some means other than impulse, but he retains his firmly held belief that any such operation is not intelligible to us. Locke accepted the conclusion that spatially separated bodies causally interact with one another in accordance with the law of universal gravitation, but concluded that the law itself did not render that causal interaction intelligible. This is precisely the kind of reaction to Newton’s theory of universal gravity bemoaned by Leibniz, who would argue that any operations or powers attributed to material bodies must meet the basic criterion of intelligibility established by the mechanist approach; he might also be inclined to argue that any laws regarded as governing the interactions of bodies must also meet that criterion by being derivable in some way from our basic concept of matter (see below). Regardless, this is an excellent example of a case in which Newton’s theory in the Principia had a direct impact on the development of philosophical views of causation in the late seventeenth century.

When the great English natural philosopher Robert Boyle died at the end of 1691, he endowed a lecture series designed to promote Christianity against what Boyle took to be the atheism that had infected English culture after the revolutionary period of the mid-century. Famous Newtonians such as Samuel Clarke and William Whiston would eventually give the Boyle lectures. The first “Boyle lecturer” was the theologian Richard Bentley, who would eventually become the Master of Newton’s alma mater , Trinity College, Cambridge, and who also worked under Locke’s correspondent, Bishop Stillingfleet, himself an admirer of Newton’s (Gascoigne 1985: 65). When preparing his lectures for publication—they had been presented to a public audience in London in 1692—Bentley conferred with Newton, hoping to solicit his help in deciphering enough of the Principia to use its results as a bulwark against atheism (Bentley 1976). Newton obliged, and a famous correspondence between the two began (eventually published as Bentley 1756). The exchange is of great philosophical interest, for Bentley elicited a number of important clarifications that have no peer within Newton’s published oeuvre .

Bentley sought Newton’s assistance in particular because he wanted guidance in divining how the theory of the Principia indicates that the solar system must have been designed by an intelligent agent and could not have arisen through the physical interactions of material bodies. In the first edition of the Principia in 1687, Newton had made such a claim in a very brief statement (Newton 1972: vol. 2: 582–3; Cohen 1971: 154–6). In the second edition of the text (published in 1713), he removed that statement, replacing it with a more extensive discussion in the new section of the text, added to its end, called the “General Scholium” (mentioned above). Through their correspondence, Bentley learned that from Newton’s point of view, the positions of the planets relative to one another—and especially to the sun—indicate that mere chance, or the ordinary physical interactions of the planetary bodies, could not have placed each planet in precisely the right orbit to maintain a solar system like ours for an extended period of time. With this argument, Newton seems to be indicating that mere chance would have produced an unstable planetary system, one in which the planets would eventually either be too strongly attracted to the sun, falling into it, or too weakly attracted, flying off into space. In this episode, a theologian appeals to the new authority of Newtonian natural philosophy when attempting to undermine atheism. And that was apparently the very kind of interchange that Boyle had envisioned when endowing the lecture series.

Newton’s correspondence with Bentley is justly famous for another reason. The criticisms of Newton’s theory of gravity by Leibniz and Huygens, outlined briefly above, would prove essential to the Continental reception of Newtonian natural philosophy more generally in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Since Newton held both of these mathematicians in high regard—he tells Leibniz in a 1693 letter that “Huygens is a master, and his remarks on my discoveries are brilliant” (Newton 2004: 108)—one might assume that their criticisms would have pressed Newton into articulating an extensive defense of the possibility of action at a distance. However, Newton presented no such defense, at least not explicitly. In fact, there is evidence that Newton himself may have rejected the possibility of action at a distance, despite the fact that the Principia allows it as a conceptual possibility, if not an empirical reality. The evidence lies in Newton’s correspondence with Bentley. In February of 1693, after receiving three letters from Newton, Bentley wrote an extensive reply that attempted to characterize Newton’s theory of gravity, along with his understanding of the nature of matter, in a way that could be used to undermine various kinds of atheism. With the three earlier letters as his guide, Bentley makes the following estimation of Newton’s understanding of the possibility that gravity could somehow be an essential feature of material bodies:

(2) And as for Gravitation, tis impossible that That should either be coæternal & essential to Matter, or ever acquired by it. Not essential and coæternal to Matter; for then even our System would have been eternal (if gravity could form it) against our Atheist’s supposition & what we have proved in our Last. For let them assign any given time, that Matter convened from a Chaos into our System, they must affirm that before the given time matter gravitated eternally without convening, which is absurd. {Sir, I make account, that your courteous suggestion by your Last, that a Chaos is inconsistent with the Hypothesis of innate Gravity, is included in this paragraph of Mine.} and again, tis unconceivable, that inanimate brute matter should (without a divine impression) operate upon & affect other matter without mutual contact: as it must, if gravitation be essential and inherent in it. (Newton 1959–vol. 3: 249)

In reply to this letter, Newton refers back to this second proposition, making one of the most famous of all his pronouncements concerning the possibility of action at a distance:

The last clause of the second position I like very well. It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter without mutual contact, as it must be, if gravitation in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and inherent in it. And this is one reason why I desired you would not ascribe innate gravity to me. That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left open to the consideration of my readers. (Newton 2004: 102–3) [ 24 ]

It certainly seems that Newton was uncomfortable with the very idea of action at a distance. But of course, things are not always as they seem in interpretations of difficult philosophical texts: some historians and philosophers have argued strongly that there are other readings of the letter. [ 25 ] Rather than rejecting distant action between material bodies per se , they argue, Newton may have been rejecting a particular version of that idea, one associated with the “Epicurean” view that gravity is somehow an essential feature of all material bodies, a stronger view than Newton might wish to endorse. The idea might be roughly as follows: Newton wanted to leave open the possibility that God had endowed bodies with a power to act at a distance on one another, a position that is at least reminiscent of Locke’s view in his correspondence with Stillingfleet (see above). The reason is that Newton held the standard view at the time that matter itself is passive, requiring some kind of divine intervention in order to interact causally with other matter. Again, one finds a Lockean echo of this idea (which may be no accident): Locke sometimes suggests that matter itself is passive in the sense that it cannot move itself; instead, motion must be “superadded” to it by God. If the world consisted solely of a bunch of material objects, say rocks floating in interstellar space, then they would not experience any changes in their states of motion unless some external force acted upon them. Left to its own devices, matter is passive and does not move. To argue, as some “Epicurean” philosophers may have done, that matter itself essentially contains gravity as a feature, is to deny that matter is passive; it is to suggest that the rocks in interstellar space would attract one another and begin to move “on their own”, without any external force influencing them. And this, in turn, might lead us on a slippery slope to atheism, for on this view, matter would act on its own, without any divine intervention. Or so Bentley and Newton might be interpreted.

Clearly, one reasonable motive for uncovering a nuanced interpretation of Newton’s letter to Bentley is the obvious fact that Newton apparently regarded action at a distance as perfectly possible when writing the Principia . Indeed, it is difficult to reconcile the Principia with the Bentley correspondence. One can argue that although he left open the possibility of action at a distance in his main work, Newton himself did not accept that possibility because of his more general commitments. The debate on such matters continues unabated. However, regardless of Newton’s personal attitude toward distant action among material bodies, his mechanist interlocutors and readers continued to object to the physical theory outlined in Book III of the Principia on the grounds that, at the very least, it left open the conceptual possibility of a kind of action that cannot in fact exist anywhere in nature. That remained one of Leibniz’s principal objections against Newtonian natural philosophy throughout the last twenty years of his life, animating his correspondence with numerous figures, including most prominently the Newtonian theologian and philosopher Samuel Clarke.

In many ways, Leibniz and Newton grew up in the same philosophical environment. Each came of age during the heyday of Cartesianism, and each argued in particular that Cartesian views in natural philosophy failed to include a sufficiently robust conception of the forces of bodies in nature. Force would lie at the center of Newton’s mature physics (Westfall 1971), and would become even more central to Leibniz’s thinking, playing an essential role in his metaphysics as well (Garber 2012). Indeed, in Leibniz’s criticisms of Cartesian physics involving what was later called the vis viva controversy (Smith 2006) and in Newton’s mature physics, each argued that Descartes and his followers had failed to understand the importance of the notion of force. Leibniz and Newton knew one another as mathematicians already in the 1670s, and as we have seen, Leibniz discussed Newton’s first optical work with Huygens. But after the publication of the Principia in 1687, their philosophical relationship, which was marked originally by respectful disagreement, began to develop in earnest. Just two years after the Principia appeared, Leibniz published his Essay on the Causes of Celestial Motions (or Tentamen ), and then in 1693, the two corresponded with one another on mathematical and philosophical issues (Newton 2004: 106–9). Leibniz initiated their discussion in March of 1693: after highlighting Newton’s “astonishing discovery” that the elliptical planetary orbits found by Kepler can be the result of gravitational attraction within the solar system, Leibniz contends that these motions must be caused by “the motion of a fluid medium” (Newton 2004: 106). He had described such a fluid medium, or vortex, in detail in his own Essay . The background to Leibniz’s comment is his unwavering commitment—one shared by Huygens, whose theory of gravity’s cause Leibniz mentions in the same letter—to the mechanist requirement that all changes in motion must be the result of material impact. Thus for Leibniz, one can (e.g.) speak of the sun as attracting the earth as a façon de parler , but in fact the cause of the earth’s acceleration, of its true motion around the sun, is its interaction with a fluid medium. (Descartes was also a famous proponent of a vortex theory of planetary motion—Aiton 1972: 30–64; Gaukroger 2002: 150–3.) When he replied in October of 1693, however, Newton did not accept Leibniz’s philosophical olive branch. Leibniz had insisted that the vortex theory of planetary motion “would not at all detract from the value and truth of your discovery” that Kepler’s ellipses result simply from the conception of attraction or gravitation (Newton 2004: 107). This olive branch was important because earlier vortex theorists, especially Descartes, had failed to account for Kepler’s laws, so Leibniz was crediting Newton with advancing astronomy in this respect (and indeed, he attempted to reflect Kepler’s results in his Tentamen ). But Newton brushed aside the olive branch, noting that vortices would disturb the motions of planets and comets through the solar system. He writes that some “very fine” matter fills the heavens, adding:

For since celestial motions are more regular than if they arose from vortices and observe other laws, so much so that vortices contribute not to the regulation but the disturbance of the motions of planets and comets; and since all phenomena of the heavens and of the sea follow precisely, so far as I am aware, from nothing but gravity acting in accordance with the laws described by me; and since nature is very simple, I have myself concluded that all other causes are to be rejected and that the heavens are to be stripped as far as may be of all matter, lest the motions of planets and comets be hindered or rendered irregular. But if, meanwhile, someone explains gravity along with all its laws by the action of some subtle matter, and shows that the motion of planets and comets will not be disturbed by this matter, I shall be far from objecting. (Newton 2004: 108–9)

This is a passage rich with meaning. Leibniz clearly insisted that vortices, or some physical object or fluid, must be in contact with the planetary orbits if we are to explain why they deviate from the tangents along the orbital paths when circling the sun. Newton’s reply is that giant swirling fluids in the heavens would actually disturb the regular orbital paths and the paths of comets through the solar system. That reply might be thought of as empirical in character, for it depends on observational data regarding the actual paths of the heavenly bodies. But Leibinz’s perspective is obviously not merely empirical in character: he does not postulate vortices (or anything akin to them) on observational grounds; he infers their existence because he thinks we know (perhaps we can add, we know a priori ) that physical bodies such as comets or planets can deviate from a rectilinear path—they can accelerate—only if some other physical item impacts upon them. Newton has a reply to that kind of view as well: he insists that the phenomena of the motion of the heavenly bodies “follows” solely from gravity itself—an impressed force, as we have seen, and therefore an “action”—in accordance with the laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. Since gravity is an action—clearly, a causal notion—it seems clear that Newton’s answer to Leibniz’s idea that vortices cause the planetary orbits is that gravity itself causes them. It is not much of a leap to conclude, in turn, that this reply commits Newton to the idea that bodies involved in gravitational interactions, such as the sun and the earth, act at a distance on one another through the force of gravity. It is not hard to divine why Leibniz (and Huygens) would have concluded that Newton had relinquished any commitment to the norms of the mechanical philosophy.

Despite Leibniz’s (and Huygens’s) criticisms of his theory of gravity in particular, and his methods in natural philosophy in general, Newton stuck to his guns. Nearly twenty years after their illuminating exchange in 1693, Leibniz and Newton narrowly missed a second opportunity to discuss their philosophical differences directly. In May of 1712, Leibniz published a letter to Nicholas Hartsoeker that was highly critical of the Newtonians; it was published in English translation in the Memoirs of Literature , a journal to which Roger Cotes, the editor of the Principia’s second edition, held a subscription (Newton 2004: 109). After Cotes brought Leibniz’s criticisms to Newton’s attention—especially the claim that the Principia renders gravitation a “perpetual miracle” because it does not specify the physical mechanism underlying it—Newton wrote an intriguing, but only posthumously published, rebuttal. Here is part of Newton’s paraphrase of Leibniz’s original letter:

But he [i.e., Leibniz] goes on and tells us that God could not create planets that should move round of themselves without any cause that should prevent their removing through the tangent. For a miracle at least must keep the planet in. (Newton 2004: 117)

Newton’s response to this Leibnizian charge is illuminating:

But certainly God could create planets that should move round of themselves without any other cause than gravity that should prevent their removing through the tangent. For gravity without a miracle may keep the planets in. ( ibid .)

Thus Newton repeats the view he mentions to Leibniz in 1693, viz., that the force of gravity itself causes the planets to follow their orbital paths rather than their inertial trajectories along the tangents to those orbits, independently of any fluid medium in the heavens. But in this posthumously published letter, Newton did not merely repeat his basic understanding of gravity from his 1693 exchange with Leibniz; he also included a wider discussion of mechanist norms within philosophy more generally. Again, Newton begins by quoting Leibniz:

But Mr. Leibniz goes on. “The ancients and the moderns, who own that gravity is an occult quality, are in the right, if they mean by it that there is a certain mechanism unknown to them whereby all bodies tend towards the center of the earth. But if they mean that the thing is performed without any mechanism by a simple primitive quality or by a law of God who produces that effect without using any intelligible means, it is an unreasonable and occult quality, and so very occult that it is impossible that it should ever be done though an angel or God himself should undertake to explain it”. (Newton 2004: 116)

In this passage, Leibniz returns to the kind of criticism that he would present against the “superaddition” view that Locke presented to Stillingfleet, arguing that philosophers must reject the idea that gravity could simply be a feature of bodies that God adds to them, despite the fact that we cannot possibly understand gravitational interactions based on our idea of body (our idea of extended solid substances, or another similar idea). Indeed, Leibniz raises the stakes by contending that God himself could not explicate how such interactions are possible based on the idea of matter. Leibniz would argue, perhaps on metaphysical grounds, that any laws said to govern the interaction of bodies, and any qualities attributed to bodies, must be intelligible in the terms available to philosophers through the mechanist orientation. In particular, laws and qualities must be intelligible in terms of the shape, size, motion and impenetrability (or solidity) of bodies. In this way, one might conclude that Locke and Leibniz actually do not necessarily disagree on whether gravity can be made intelligible in mechanist terms; they simply disagree on the propriety of the contention that God could “superadd” a feature to bodies that cannot be made intelligible in that way.

Newton’s reply to Leibniz’s argument is illuminating. Instead of presenting a narrow defense of his view, perhaps by denying that he has postulated any non-mechanical causation with his theory of gravity, he challenges the mechanical philosophy itself by contending that it should not be understood as holding for all natural phenomena:

The same ought to be said of hardness. So then gravity and hardness must go for unreasonable occult qualities unless they can be explained mechanically. And why may not the same be said of the vis inertiae [force of inertia] and the extension, the duration and mobility of bodies, and yet no man ever attempted to explain these qualities mechanically, or took them for miracles or supernatural things or fictions or occult qualities. They are the natural, real, reasonable, manifest qualities of all bodies seated in them by the will of God from the beginning of the creation and perfectly incapable of being explained mechanically, and so may be the hardness of primitive particles of bodies. And therefore if any man should say that bodies attract one another by a power whose cause is unknown to us, or by a power seated in the frame of nature by the will of God, or by a power seated in a substance in which bodies move and float without resistance and which has therefore no vis inertiae but acts by other laws than those that are mechanical: I know not why he should be said to introduce miracles and occult qualities and fictions into the world. For Mr. Leibniz himself will scarce say that thinking is mechanical as it must be if to explain it otherwise be to make a miracle, an occult quality, and a fiction. (Newton 2004: 116)

The first aspect of Newton’s argument is to indicate that mechanical explanations are predicated on referencing certain kinds of qualities when investigating natural phenomena, and that these qualities themselves are therefore not subject to mechanical explanation. For instance, since mechanist explanations—say, of the way in which magnets attract iron filings across a table—must refer to qualities such as the extension of the bodies subject to the explanations, then we cannot give a mechanist explanation of extension itself. Of course, Leibniz might reply that we need not provide any explanation of the basic qualities of bodies that figure in mechanical explanations, for those properties have been chosen by the “moderns” precisely because they are perfectly intelligible on their own, perhaps unlike various qualities attributed to “Scholastic” accounts of natural phenomena. The second aspect of Newton’s argument is more intriguing—it also harkens back to Locke’s discussion with Stillingfleet, for Locke had contended that God may have superadded not only gravity to material bodies, but also the power of thought, linking them because he believed that neither could be rendered intelligible using any philosophical means at his disposal. That is, from Locke’s point of view, we know that human beings—which are, or at least contain, material bodies with size, shape, motion and solidity, along with parts characterized by those qualities—are capable of thought, but since we cannot discern how any material thing could possibly have that capacity, we conclude that God may have superadded that feature to us, or to our bodies. Thought and gravity are dis-analogous in the sense that we did not require anything like Newton’s theory to convince us that human beings can think, but they are otherwise analogous. Newton then attempts to make the following argument: since Leibniz would have to agree that thinking is not a mechanical process, and not mechanically explicable, he must agree that there is at least one aspect of the world that has the following two features, (1) it is not mechanical; and, (2) it is clearly not to be rejected on that ground alone. He attempts to liken gravity (as he understands it) to thinking (as he believes Leibniz is required to understand it), arguing that despite the fact that it is not mechanical—it cannot be explained mechanically—it should not be rejected on that ground. This argument may be predicated on the view that human beings, material things, or at least partially material things, do the thinking, rather than immaterial things, such as minds or souls, for if one attributes all thought to an immaterial mind or soul, then there is no pressure to say that anything in nature, or perhaps even any aspect of anything in nature, has a feature that cannot be mechanically explicated. If one accepts Locke’s view (apparently also endorsed by Newton) that we should attribute thinking to material things, or to aspects of material things, then perhaps Newton has successfully followed Locke in likening gravity to thought, thereby making room for aspects of nature that are not mechanical after all. This vexing issue would continue to generate debates amongst Newton’s and Leibniz’s various followers in England, and on the Continent, respectively.

Leibniz’s most extensive debate with the Newtonians would not occur until the very end of his life. His celebrated correspondence with Samuel Clarke, Newton’s friend and supporter in London in the early part of the eighteenth century, is his most famous interaction with the Newtonians, occurring right before his death in 1716 (Clarke and Leibniz 1717). Leibniz fomented the correspondence in November of 1715 by sending a brief, provocative letter to Princess Caroline of Wales, one designed to provoke a response from Newton’s circle in London. Leibniz knew well that Princess Caroline was a leading intellectual and political figure in England at the time, one who would surely be concerned by Leibniz’s shocking claims about the religious consequences of Newtonian thinking. He opens his initial letter by mentioning both Locke and Newton, along with the issues about materiality and thinking that arose in his near exchange with Newton in 1712:

Natural religion itself seems to decay [in England] very much. Many will have human souls to be material; others make God himself a corporeal being. Mr. Locke and his followers are uncertain at least whether the soul is not material and naturally perishable. Sir Isaac Newton says that space is an organ which God makes use of to perceive things by. But if God stands in need of any organ to perceive things by, it will follow that they do not depend altogether on him, nor were produced by him. (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: L 1: 1–3)

Thus Leibniz charges both Lockeans and Newtonians with presenting philosophical views of the human and of the divine that lead to theologically unsavory consequences, such as the idea that the human soul might be material and the view that God must employ something akin to an organ in order to perceive happenings in the world. These were fighting words. Although Locke had died in 1704, he had various followers in England at the time (Gascoigne 1985: 172–3), and Newton himself was at the height of his influence: he had by then been knighted, as Leibniz acknowledges by calling him “Sir” in his letter, and was at that time President of the Royal Society. Moreover, Samuel Clarke had given the Boyle lectures in 1704 and again in 1705, so he was a public figure associated with the state of Christianity in England. Once Clarke took the bait, replying that same month to Leibniz’s charges, Locke’s views quickly dropped from view and the two focused specifically on Leibniz’s numerous objections to Newtonian ideas and methods. But why did Clarke respond on Newton’s behalf, and what was Newton’s actual role in the correspondence? These questions continue to puzzle scholars (see Cohen and Koyré 1962; Bertoloni Meli 1999 and 2002; Vailati 1997). There is no documentary evidence, such as letters, between Clarke and Newton indicating the contours of his role; then again, at this time, both men lived in London and Clarke was Newton’s parish priest, so the lack of letters or other papers is perhaps unsurprising. That fact alone is intriguing, for the theological differences between the two are salient: since Newton was a committed anti-Trinitarian—a fact known to figures like Locke and to others such as William Whiston—he may have decided that Leibniz’s contentions about “natural religion” in England would best be answered by what we might now call a more mainstream theological figure like Clarke. In any event, there is no doubt that Clarke was taken by Leibniz and his followers to be speaking for Newton and his circle. Nonetheless, there are certainly aspects of Clarke’s views that may deviate from Newton’s own opinions, so it would be unwise to (as it were) remove Clarke from our conception of the correspondence by regarding it effectively as Newton’s work.

Leibniz’s side of the correspondence with Clarke is methodologically characteristic: he leaves much of his own systematic and complex metaphysical theorizing—including the monadology—in the background, bringing to the fore only those elements that are both necessary for his criticisms of the Newtonians and also likely to garner support from Clarke. Thus the key to many of Leibniz’s criticisms is the principle of sufficient reason (PSR), which he knows Clarke will endorse (although with a distinct conception of its scope: Leibniz asserts, while Clarke denies, that the principle demands that each act of divine willing requires a reason; for Clarke, divine willing itself is reason enough for some physical state of affairs to obtain, or event to occur). Leibniz argues in particular that several key aspects of the Newtonian worldview are simply incompatible with the PSR, including the idea of absolute space. If space were in fact completely independent of all physical objects and all relations among them, as the Newtonians seem to assert, then a problem arises:

I have many demonstrations to confute the fancy of those who take space to be a substance or at least an absolute being. But I shall only use, at present, one demonstration, which the author here gives me occasion to insist upon. I say, then, that if space were an absolute being, something would happen for which it would be impossible that there should be a sufficient reason—which is against my axiom. And I prove it thus: space is something absolutely uniform, and without the things placed in it, one point of space absolutely does not differ in any respect whatsoever from another point of space. Now from this it follows (supposing space to be something in itself, besides the order of bodies among themselves) that it is impossible there should be a reason why God, preserving the same situations of bodies among themselves, should have placed them in space after one certain particular manner and not otherwise—why everything was not placed the quite contrary way, for instance, by changing east into west. But if space is nothing else but this order or relation, and is nothing at all without bodies but the possibility of placing them, then those two states, the one such as it is now, the other supposed to be the quite contrary way, would not at all differ from one another. Their difference therefore is only to be found in our chimerical supposition of the reality of space. (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: L 3: 5)

Leibniz’s argument is clever at the outset: he bypasses the thorny problem of determining whether Newton’s idea of absolute space commits him to thinking of space as a substance—a view, incidentally, which Newton explicitly considers and rejects in De Gravitatione (Newton 2004: 21–2)—by presupposing only that Newton thinks of space as existing independently of objects and their relations. If space is indeed independent in this way, then it would seem that God faces a choice: when creating the world, or matter, why place (e.g.) the earth in one particular part of space rather than any other? The parts of space, independently of all objects and all relations, obviously do not differ from one another in any respect at all, so it would seem that one could not even theoretically devise a reason for placing the earth anywhere in particular, as opposed to anywhere else . (This argument, incidentally, does not depend on our having the capacity to refer to places within empty space.) But since space exists, with all its places, independently of the earth and everything else, then God must indeed have some reason to place the earth in one place rather than another—for Leibniz, even the divine will is inert independent of any reason for (as it were) moving in one direction rather than another. Finally, Leibniz argues that he himself avoids this problem by asserting that space is nothing above and beyond the objects in the world and all possible relations amongst them (hence he holds a kind of modal relationalist view, in more modern terminology). God faces no problematic choice on this view, since space does not exist prior to the creation of the world, or of material objects: to create objects with spatial relations is ipso facto to create space itself, for it is nothing over and above objects and their relations. If you like, space for Leibniz just is a way of conceptually grasping all objects and all possible relations amongst them, all at once. Time, similarly, is a way of grasping the whole series of events that have characterized history. Clarke’s reply is somewhat disappointing: he blocks Leibniz’s inference by simply denying that the divine will must have a reason to place (say) the earth in one place rather than another (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: C 3: 5). The PSR is not violated in this case, according to Clarke’s interpretation of it, because it requires only this: if the earth appears in one place rather than another, there must be a reason that it appears there, and the reason in this case is simply the divine will; there is no further question about why the divine being made a particular choice rather than another. In the quotation above, Leibniz speaks of the Newtonians as endorsing “the reality of space”, which Leibniz regards as “chimerical”. This remark highlights another important aspect of Leibniz’s conception of space and time, one that is often ignored in contemporary discussions, which tend to emphasize Leibnizian “relationalism” in opposition to Newtonian “absolutism”. Leibniz’s view of space and time connects intimately with broader aspects of his metaphysical positions: unlike ordinary physical objects, which are constituted by their parts (they are discrete), and which exhibit features that involve internal distinctions amongst those parts, he thinks of space and time as continuous and homogeneous. Leaving aside the monadology, as he does in his correspondence with Clarke, this means that for Leibniz, it is physical objects that are real things; space and time are merely “ideal” or abstract entities whose continuity and homogeneity signal this special status. It is not merely that space and time are nothing over and above the events and relations of objects that exist in our world; it is also the case that they are ideal: they depend in some way on the human mind for their existence. Or so Leibniz seems to suggest. This aspect of his view would become of central importance to later (e.g. Kant’s) conceptions of the Leibniz-Newton debate on the nature of space.

Obviously, Leibniz’s arguments against the Newtonians highlighted a fundamental difference between his interpretation of the PSR and Clarke’s: where Leibniz held what we might call the “rationalist” view that all willing, all choice, must occur for a reason—a requirement from which even the divine being is not exempt—Clarke held what we might call the “voluntarist” view that willing, or choice, itself need not occur for any reason, for it is itself a sufficient reason for some states of affairs to obtain or event to occur. From Leibniz’s point of view, this renders the will, including the divine will, opaque or unintelligible: if an agent can act or make a choice without having any reason for it, then surely the agent is not rational, and if the PSR demands anything of the world, it is that the world be rationally intelligible to us. This requirement must hold of agents and their wills as well. But from Clarke’s point of view, this requirement is too stringent, especially in the divine case: if we hold that even God must have a reason for choosing to create one state of affairs rather than another—for choosing, say, to part the Red Sea rather than the Mississippi River—then we are ipso facto restricting God’s freedom. Surely God has the freedom to choose to do anything at all, or at least, anything that does not contain or instantiate a contradiction, and for his part, Leibniz agrees that the principle of contradiction does not entail the PSR—the latter is a separate and independent principle which is necessary for metaphysics and natural philosophy to extend beyond mathematics, which requires only the principle of contradiction (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: L 2: 1). But he thinks that Clarke’s view leaves us with a God, and indeed with ordinary agents, who can act arbitrarily, with no reason at all. That is not the kind of freedom that philosophy seeks; it wishes to see agents as engaged in rational action. In their differing interpretations of the PSR, and their correspondingly distinct conceptions of freedom and reason, the debate between Leibniz and Clarke hits rock bottom.

Leibniz’s criticisms of the Newtonians were not restricted to questions about the nature of space and time; he also revived his old complaint—one shared by Huygens, as we have seen above—that Newton’s physical theory commits him to the possibility, if not to the reality, of action at a distance among the planetary bodies. In one passage in his fourth letter, for instance, Leibniz writes (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: L 4: 45):

It is also a supernatural thing that bodies should attract one another at a distance without any intermediate means and that a body should move around without receding in the tangent, though nothing hinders it from so receding. For these effects cannot be explained by the nature of things.

As a defender of the mechanical philosophy, Leibniz insists here, as he had before, that a material body like the Earth would recede along the tangent to its orbit if it were not impacted upon by some physical body or bodies, such as a vortex or another kind of fluid filling the solar system. Clarke’s reply to this charge is especially illuminating (Clarke and Leibniz 1717: C 4: 45):

That one body should attract another without any intermediate means, is indeed not a miracle, but a contradiction: for ‘tis supposing something to act where it is not. But the means by which two bodies attract each other may be invisible and intangible, and of a different nature from mechanism, and yet, acting regularly and constantly, may well be called natural, being much less wonderful than animal motion, which yet is never called a miracle’.

This passage is bound to confuse readers. On the one hand, Clarke is clearly arguing that the Newtonians refuse to restrict their understanding of causal interactions in nature to mechanical cases; on the other, however, he does not accept what many at that time would have regarded as the obvious implication of this denial of mechanism, namely that action at a distance is perfectly possible (a move embraced by some later in the eighteenth century, such as Kant). Instead, Clarke not only rejects action at a distance, as Newton possibly had before him; he contends that it isn’t even logically possible! In his various pronouncements to Bentley and others, Newton never contended that action at a distance was simply a contradiction and therefore impossible, presumably even for the divine being, who is typically said to be capable of creating any situation that does not instantiate a contradiction (although Descartes’s views on the eternal truths are obviously more complicated). Clarke’s view raises a serious problem for Newtonians: if action at a distance is simply a contradiction, and therefore not a possible physical situation, even with divine intervention, then how should one interpret the theory of universal gravity, which certainly appears to indicate that distant action is perfectly possible, and perhaps even actual? If we interpret the theory as postulating actual distant action, say between the moon and the earth, then it clearly must be mistaken; but even if we interpret it less strongly, as merely postulating that distant action between the moon and the earth is possible, that would presumably disqualify the theory as well. Perhaps one can save Clarke’s view by contending that since distant action is logically impossible, Newton’s theory must therefore be interpreted as neutral on that issue. This is one issue where Clarke’s views may differ substantially from Newton’s own. Regardless of whether Clarke represented Newton’s own views faithfully, there is no doubt that his correspondence with Leibniz helped to shape the agenda of philosophy in the eighteenth century.

The history of eighteenth-century philosophy cannot be written without extensive discussion of Newton’s own views and of his influence on the views of other figures both in England and on the Continent. As we have seen, when Newton was a young student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Cartesian views in natural philosophy and much else besides had replaced the ideas and methods of Aristotle and his followers as the most important subject for discussion amongst philosophers. In many ways, Newton eventually succeeded in convincing philosophers that his own ideas and methods were superior to those of the Cartesians—especially when it came to thinking about motion and its causes—but this historical fact did not mean that Newtonianism, even broadly construed, became the dominant trend in natural philosophy during Newton’s lifetime. On the contrary, Newton’s views continued to be the subject of intense scrutiny and debate. As we have seen, this was true amongst Leibniz and his followers (such as Christiaan Wolff) and among fellow mechanists (such as Huygens). Indeed, a late-seventeenth-century debate between Cartesian and Newtonian ideas was supplanted by an early eighteenth century debate between Leibnizian and Newtonian views; the latter debate would continue in one form or another for the rest of the century. But even amongst leading Continental mathematicians, some of Newton’s most basic ideas, for instance concerning the forces of nature, remained the subject of dispute until well into the eighteenth century. To give just one prominent example that influenced the development of philosophy, D’Alembert and Euler, two of the greatest mathematicians of the Enlightenment, had opposite reactions to Newton’s idea that the mass of an object could also be referred to by the “very significant name” of the vis inertiae , or force of inertia (Newton 1999, 404—see below for details). These discussions, along with numerous other debates about space, time, motion were a driving force during the French Enlightenment. They remained a powerful stimulant to philosophical theorizing in the 1770s and 1780s, when Kant forged his magisterial “critical” system of philosophy, an approach that almost single-handedly set the philosophical agenda of the early nineteenth century. Hence Newton’s influence on the eighteenth century did not take the form of a single philosophical program or movement; instead, it was the controversial nature of his ideas and methodology that drove much of the philosophical discussion.

Newton’s ideas and methods were certainly most influential in Britain, where there grew to be a strong “Newtonian” movement—also called the “experimental philosophy” program—by roughly 1700. By the fin de siecle , it is probably safe to say that natural philosophy had become heavily Newtonian in England, at least in the sense that it had eclipsed both Cartesianism (Henry 2013: 124 and introduction to Voltaire 1738 [1992, 7]), and other local movements, such as Cambridge Platonism, which had exhibited a strong influence during the previous generation. One might put the point somewhat differently: to the extent that there was a dominant strand in England by 1700, it was the “experimental philosophy”, a view that was associated strongly with figures such as Boyle, Newton and Locke. Figures such as Hobbes had opposed this approach to solving philosophical problems, but had failed to gain nearly as much influence. Perhaps more importantly, Newton’s view of motion, his understanding of space and time, and his approach to achieving knowledge of natural phenomena, helped to shape the agenda of British philosophy for the next fifty years. In addition to Newton’s influence on Locke’s thinking about matter and causation, explored above, both Berkeley and Hume expended considerable energy grappling with the wider consequences and implications of the Newtonian version of the experimental philosophy. For his part, Berkeley famously derided many Newtonians methods and ideas—sometimes exempting Newton himself from his conception of the worst philosophical excesses of his followers—including the rise of the calculus among mathematicians (in The Analyst ) and the use of the idea of a force as the basic causal concept in natural philosophy (in De Motu —both reprinted in Berkeley 1992). Berkeley’s theory of ideas, which arose in part from his reflections of what we would now call Locke’s “empiricist” notion of representation, suggested to him that no idea can be abstract: each idea must represent a particular rather than a universal. Hence we can have an idea of a particular car, say a yellow two-door sports car, but not of a car in general, one with no specific characteristics. Similarly, we can have an idea of a particular shade of yellow, perhaps because we’ve just seen a lovely yellow rose at the florist, but not of yellow in general; and so on. Berkeley then argued that modern mathematics, especially the calculus, and modern natural philosophy, especially Newtonian versions of it, were often reliant on abstract ideas, and therefore philosophically suspect. For instance, he contended that the very idea of absolute motion was suspect because we can represent to ourselves only various motions with particular features related to particular bodies in motion, but “absolute” motion cannot be rendered particular in anything like this way; it remains abstract (Downing 2005: 235). Thus although Newtonian views were considered to be essential to the rise of experimental philosophy in Britain, Berkeley derided them as insufficiently experimental, or empirical, as overly reliant on representations of universals and of universal quantities, rather than on the representation of particulars. In a reflection of Malebranche’s influence, Berkeley also argued that some Newtonians wrongly attributed genuine causal powers to ordinary material objects through their use of the concept of impressed force; wrongly, because Berkeley firmly rejected the notion that any body could exert any causal power. All causation in Berkeley’s system is due either to the intervention of the divine in the course of history, or to spirits or minds, which are genuinely causally active. Finally, in an argument that would prefigure Mach’s reactions to Newtonian conceptions of space, time and motion in the late nineteenth century—which were expressive of a broad commitment to “empiricism”—Berkeley contended that absolute space is a metaphysical aberration: philosophers should not posit any entity or thing that is beyond all possible perception. In sum, Berkeley was highly critical of many aspects of the Newtonian program, but for that very reason, it was Newton’s ideas that helped to shape many of his philosophical projects.

For his part, Hume had a more nuanced reaction to the emergence of the Newtonian program (cf. Schliesser 2007 and DePierris 2012). He certainly signaled his endorsement of the experimental philosophy—itself strongly associated with the Newtonians, along with figures like Boyle and Hooke, as we have seen—when he gave his Treatise the following subtitle: “being an attempt to introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects”. And one might argue that Hume made a kind of Lockean move when he chose to endorse the Newtonian program specifically in preference to the mechanical philosophy, which he regarded with suspicion. A famous comment from his History of England bolsters this interpretation:

While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain. (Hume 1854 [1754–61]: vol. 5: 374)

The difference between Locke and Hume might be that the former, unlike the latter, nonetheless insisted that mechanism continued to provide philosophers with a canon for the intelligibility of causation within nature (Hume’s critique of earlier conceptions of causation, including Locke’s, is certainly well known). Hume also expended considerable effort in interpreting some of the philosophical aspects or consequences of Newton’s theory of gravity and his corresponding understanding of the nature of matter. In particular, he wished to provide what we would now call an empiricist interpretation of Newton’s three laws of motion, his concept of mass (quantity of matter), and his understanding of gravity; in the process, he does not shy away from interpreting Newton’s sometimes confusing notion of the vis inertiae or force of inertia. When students learn the canonical idea of a Newtonian force, they learn about what Newton called a vis impressa , an impressed force. They also learn that the mass of a body is not a force at all. But in all three editions of the Principia , Newton himself said that although the mass of a body is not an impressed force, it could be called by the “very significant name of force of inertia” because bodies with mass with resist acceleration (Newton 1999, 404). And to resist acceleration seemed to Newton like an action that a body performs, say when some other body collides with it. Now for Hume, this issue was particularly difficult because he had already contended that strictly speaking, we have no idea (no representation) of force or power—these are merely words employed by natural philosophers without any ideas corresponding to them. Thus he must find an interpretation of Newton that is not predicated on our ability to form an idea of forces or powers. In a famous footnote in his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , he writes (Hume 1777 [1993: §vii.i note 2, 48–49]):

I need not examine at length the vis inertiae which is so much talked of in the new philosophy, and which is ascribed to matter. We find by experience, that a body at rest or in motion continues for ever in its present state, till put from it by some new cause; and that a body impelled takes as much motion from the impelling body as it acquires itself. These are facts. When we call this a vis inertiae , we only mark these facts, without pretending to have any idea of the inert power; in the same manner as, when we talk of gravity, we mean certain effects, without comprehending that active power. It was never the meaning of Sir ISAAC NEWTON to rob second causes of all force or energy; though some of his followers have endeavoured to establish that theory upon his authority. On the contrary, that great philosopher had recourse to an ethereal active fluid to explain his universal attraction; though he was so cautious and modest as to allow, that it was a mere hypothesis, not to be insisted on, without more experiments.

In mentioning Newton’s speculation that an aether might explain universal gravity in some sense (for instance, in query 21 to the Opticks ), Hume does not appear to be concerned about action at a distance; instead, he is concerned to argue that this speculation indicates that Newton himself did not regard his theory as requiring that we attribute a “power” of gravity to material bodies. This is important for Hume to establish, not least because he believes that we can form no representation at all of any such power. Similarly, when Newton indicates in the Principia that we can conceive of a body’s quantity of matter as its vis inertiae , its power of resisting any change to its state of motion (Newton 1999: 404–5), he is not attributing any power to that body, but rather employing a means of characterizing its behavior. Or so Hume contends. In this specific regard, we find an echo of Berkeley’s earlier work: in De Motu , Berkeley argues in particular that although some philosophers misunderstand the Newtonian theory of gravity as attributing a special force or nature to material objects, there is an interpretation of Newton that is consistent with the new theory of ideas. He writes (Berkeley 1992: De Motu , §6):

Again, force , gravity , and terms of that sort are more often used in the concrete (and rightly so) so as to connote the body in motion, the effort of resisting, etc. But when they are used by philosophers to signify certain natures carved out and abstracted from all these things, natures which are not objects of sense, nor can be grasped by any force of intellect, nor pictured by the imagination, then indeed they breed errors and confusion.

There is little doubt, then, that the new British philosophy represented by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in the early-to-mid eighteenth century was concerned to present interpretations of Newton’s work that were consistent with their overarching philosophical commitments, principles and methods, or to alter those commitments, principles and methods as necessary.

These attempts by canonical philosophers like Berkeley and Hume to find what they regarded as a defensible interpretation of Newtonian forces are mirrored by similar attempts in the writings of leading mathematicians. For instance, the very same issue discussed by Hume had already been debated by two of the leading figures in Continental science, D’Alembert and Euler. For his part, in his famous work, the Traité de dynamique (1743), D’Alembert expressed a view that is very similar to Hume’s (in certain respects). He proclaimed right at the outset that he wished to develop a physics that would dispense with the concept of a force altogether on the grounds that it was an “obscure” idea. He would “reduce all the principles of mechanics to three, the force of inertia, compound motion, and equilibrium” (D’Alembert 1743, 3). He immediately explained the first item: the reason that he could accept Newton’s force of inertia is that it’s characterized as a property of bodies, one in virtue of which they follow the laws of motion, rather than a force or power. So it was not an obscure notion. Ironically, the great Swiss mathematician Euler had precisely the opposite reaction: from his point of view, the “force of inertia” was simply a misnomer, for it was not a force at all and should therefore be expunged from physics altogether. Instead, physics should employ only the idea of an impressed force, a cause of acceleration, which he regarded as a perfectly clear idea. Of course, history was on Euler’s side, indeed so much so that future generations would not even imagine that so many leading philosophers and mathematicians during the Enlightenment debated this topic.

In other respects, in France the intellectual situation was rather different than in England. Cartesian ideas held sway for many decades after Newton first emerged on the scene in the 1670s with his optics papers and in the late 1680s with the Principia ; they were especially popular at the Académie Royale des Sciences, unlike the situation in the Royal Society (Henry 2013: 120). Voltaire became famous for challenging the Cartesian French orthodoxy, traveling to England for a celebrated visit and bringing home “enlightened” ideas about philosophy, politics, and much else besides in an attempt to foment the emergence and development of a French Newtonian program. His most important publication in this regard is probably the Elements of the philosophy of Newton (Voltaire 1738/1992), which attempts to signal the “errors” of Descartes and to highlight the advantages of the Newtonian program in “Physique”. Of course, Cartesian ideas and methods retained numerous adherents and defenders in France, and so the debate between Cartesian and Newtonian ideas flourished in that environment (cf. Aiton 1972: ch. 8). But even in France, Cartesianism eventually gave way to a newer version of metaphysics associated with Leibniz and his German follower and expositor, Wolff. In 1740, Émilie du Châtelet, published a key text, Institutions de physique , or Foundations of physics (see especially the analysis in Brading 2019). In her text—which was republished in a second edition in 1742 and swiftly translated into German and Italian—she makes precisely the kind of argument that presses Hume a few years later to articulate a conception of the vis inertiae that is consistent with the experimental philosophy. She argues that the Cartesian view that extension is the essence of body is mistaken; we must conceive of material objects as exhibiting a “ force d’inertie ” if we are to understand their physical interactions properly (Du Châtelet 1742: ch. 1, §2). Perhaps not surprisingly, D’Alembert cites her text approvingly in his Treatise on Dynamics . From Du Châtelet’s point of view, this Newtonian conception of body is not inherently problematic. Problems arise, however, when some Newtonians interpret the theory of universal gravity as proving that bodies have a property of attraction or attractive power endowed by God (Du Châtelet 1742: ch. 16, §385). She accepts the idea that gravity is proportional to the masses of bodies and inversely proportional to the square of their spatial separation, arguing that this Newtonian idea of attraction “marvelously” explains the fall of bodies on earth, the tides, and various astronomical phenomena, something that the vortex theory of the Cartesians fails to do. But she denies that this acceptance entails that she must also accept the conclusion that bodies have an “essential property” called gravity or attractive force, contending that such a conclusion transcends the knowledge available to philosophers (Du Châtelet 1742: ch. 16, §388). The reason is that no one had yet demonstrated that there is no medium for gravity, such as a vortex or an aether: since gravity may depend on some medium, it may not be essential to matter per se . In this specific way, Châtelet’s work is predicated on the familiar notion that although Cartesianism had been overthrown by Newtonian ideas and methods, philosophers must nonetheless develop a proper interpretation of the Newtonian theory of gravity and of its implications. Yet unlike Voltaire, who not only rejected Cartesianism, but became famous for his ridicule of Leibnizian philosophy in Candide , Châtelet argued that philosophers should continue to work on developing the proper methodology in part by taking seriously the ideas and methods of Leibniz and Wolff. In particular, Châtelet argued that the principle of sufficient reason should be a guiding force in metaphysical theorizing, and as Leibniz had argued, it shows the fundamental error in Newton’s concept of absolute space; she added that Clarke’s method of replying to Leibniz’s argument, viz., that one can develop a non-Leibnizian or voluntarist conception of the PSR to evade the problem with absolute space, is underwhelming (Du Châtelet 1742: ch. 5, §74). She also argued that if we use the PSR to guide our thinking about science, we will be skeptical of Locke’s solution to the problem of understanding the philosophical implications of Newton’s theory of universal gravity. The idea that Newton’s theory supports the conclusion that God must have “superadded” gravity to matter avoids potential problems with asserting that gravity is “essential” to matter, something she also regards skeptically, but simply encounters other problems. First, since no one yet understood whether there was any medium underlying gravitational interactions, such as an aether, it was premature to conclude that gravity is a property of matter, even one “superadded” to it by divine fiat. After all, if there is an aether, then matter may gravitate because of its interactions with the aether, and not because of any superadded property. Second, the PSR demands that we seek rational explanations of natural phenomena in our science, but the superaddition thesis is predicated on the idea that we simply cannot understand how matter gravitates toward other matter. Newton’s science is simply taken to indicate that it does so. She was unwilling to leave the most important conclusion of the Scientific Revolution a mere mystery.

Euler’s rejection of the vis inertiae was not his only major reaction to Newton’s science. The question of whether to accept, and of how to interpret, absolute space, time and motion, and the related question of how to conceive of the relation between Newton’s work in natural philosophy and the flourishing Leibnizian-Wolffian metaphysics on the Continent, continued to drive conversations in the middle of the eighteenth century. Just a few years after Châtelet published her Institutions , Euler presented a novel approach to these two questions in a short paper entitled “Reflexions sur l’Espace et le Temps”, first published in 1748 in the Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences de Berlin . The Berlin Academy had been witnessing a vociferous debate between Wolffians and Newtonians since 1740 (a debate that would continue until roughly 1759), one in which Euler played a role. Whereas one might regard the British philosophers, especially Berkeley and Hume, as arguing that philosophical principles and commitments take a kind of precedence in driving one’s interpretations of the concepts of force, motion, space and time, Euler argued that natural philosophy—specifically, mechanics—ought to take precedence. The famous first sentence of his essay indicates why: he contends that the principles of mechanics—for instance, the principle of inertia—are so well established that it would be foolish to doubt them (Euler 1748: 324). In particular, if one’s metaphysical commitments stand in tension with the concepts of space and motion found in geometry and mechanics, then one must adjust those commitments accordingly. Euler then presented a clever argument: the law of inertia picks out rectilinear motion as a special kind of motion, so to apply it to bodies in nature, there must be a clear meaning to the idea of a straight line. But if space is merely the order of relations amongst material bodies, then any set of reference bodies we use to determine which motion is straight could itself be in motion. So to employ the idea of rectilinear motion, we require the notion of absolute space (see DiSalle 2006, 36-37).

The most important figure in German-speaking Europe to react in depth to Newton’s ideas was surely Immanuel Kant. As a young man, Kant was influenced by Euler’s argument (Friedman 1992: 16–17) in the 1748 piece. [ 26 ] Kant began grappling with Newtonian ideas at the very beginning of his career—he discussed the inverse-square law in his first publication (Kant 1747: § 10)—and they would remain central both to his magnum opus, the Critique of Pure Reason (Kant 1787 [1992]) and to his Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786 [2002]). In the so-called pre-critical period, Kant diverged sharply from the approach toward natural philosophy defended by many Leibnizians in German-speaking Europe by deciding to accept the Newtonian theory of universal gravity, along with corresponding aspects of the Newtonian conception of matter, as a starting point for philosophical theorizing (Friedman 2012: 485–6). He makes this explicit already in 1763, in The Only Possible Argument :

I will attempt to provide an explanation of the origin of the world system according to the general laws of mechanics, not an explanation of the entire natural order, but only of the great masses of matter and their orbits, which constitute the most crudest foundation of nature … I will presuppose the universal gravitation of matter according to Newton or his followers in this project. If there are any who believe that through a definition of metaphysics formulated according to their own taste they can annihilate the conclusions established by men of perspicacity on the basis of observation and by means of mathematical inference—if there are such persons, they can skip the following propositions as something which has only a remote bearing on the main aim of this essay. (Kant 1763: AK 2: 139)

A rare case of Kantian irony, it seems. Already in this early text, Kant has clearly broken with his predecessors both in England and on the Continent, who insisted on disputing Newton’s theory of universal gravity, either on metaphysical or theological grounds. Instead, Kant’s work will be predicated on that theory. But Kant never became an orthodox Newtonian, any more than an orthodox Leibnizian (or Wolffian). This is evident from the radically different fates of two classic Newtonian concepts within the Kantian system: the idea that the theory of universal gravity shows that gravity is a feature of material bodies, along with the related concept of action at a distance, on the one hand; and absolute space, on the other. The quotation from 1763 above indicates that Kant was willing to endorse Newton’s theory of universal gravity, despite the many objections raised against it by his Leibnizian predecessors. Indeed, he was also willing to accept the most radical interpretation of that theory, one according to which every material body in the world should be understood as bearing a feature called gravity, one that involves that body in actions at a distance on all other such bodies. As Kant puts it dramatically in Proposition 7 of the second chapter of Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science : “The attraction essential to all matter is an immediate action of matter on other matter through empty space” (Kant 1786 [2002: 223]; AK 4: 512). This view is radical in two senses: first, it involves the highly controversial claim that gravity is essential to matter, which indicates that a body lacking gravitational interactions would potentially fail to count as a material entity at all (much as an earlier generation of philosophers would conceive of extension as essential to matter); and second, it also involves the debated idea that material bodies act at a distance on one another. One can conceivably endorse the latter without endorsing the former, contending, e.g., that although material bodies in the actual world act at a distance on one another, perhaps because of a divine plan, it is perfectly possible for material bodies to fail to do so under distinct worldly conditions (i.e., there may be possible worlds in which material bodies lack gravity altogether). That is, the endorsement of action at a distance does not entail the endorsement of the essentiality claim. Both ideas are controversial, and Kant strongly endorses them both. This placed him in a rather select group of radical Newtonians (Friedman 1992: 1 note 2). Kant himself understood that Newton may not have endorsed these controversial views, arguing that he was inconsistent on this score (see Remark 2 to Proposition 7 of chapter 2, AK 4: 514–16; Friedman 2012: 203–21). And yet Kant strongly resisted the other most controversial Newtonian idea, absolute space, along with the related idea of absolute motion (Friedman 2012: 35–42). In the Critique of Pure Reason , for instance, Kant expressed a basically Leibnizian sympathy by arguing that there are fundamental metaphysical (and perhaps epistemic) difficulties with thinking of space and time as existing independently of all objects and all possible relations among them as “actual entities ”( wirkliche Wesen —A23/B37) in their own right. He does so in a passage that (perhaps confusingly) characterizes the Leibnizians as also defending a kind of realism about space, but we can focus solely on his criticism of the Newtonians:

Those, however, who assert the absolute reality of space and time, whether they assume it to be subsisting or only inhering, must themselves come into conflict with the principles of experience. For if they decide in favor of the first (which is generally the position of the mathematical investigators of nature), then they must assume two eternal and infinite self-subsisting non-entities (space and time), which exist (yet without there being anything real) only in order to comprehend everything real within themselves. (A39/B56)

If one regards space (like time) as existing independently of all objects and all possible relations, and yet one admits that space is causally inert and imperceptible, as one presumably must in the late eighteenth century, then one is committed to the idea that there is a kind of infinite and eternal non-entity in the world. Space is a kind of non-entity, Kant suggests, because on the one hand it is said to exist independently of everything else, and yet on the other hand, it is said to be causally inert and imperceptible, which would distinguish it from every other sort of thing that exists. Kant simply cannot stomach this metaphysically preposterous notion. It is therefore incumbent upon him to develop a theory of space (and of motion) that meets at least two distinct criteria: (1) it coheres with his understanding of the theory of universal gravity, and of what he regards as its implication, viz. that gravity is an essential feature of material bodies; and, (2) it avoids the metaphysically problematic aspects of Newtonian absolute space. Kant tackles precisely these tasks in the Metaphysical Foundations , which was published in between the appearance of the first and second edition of the Critique , arguing that we can regard absolute space as a kind of idea of reason, an ideal that we approach asymptotically in our theorizing about motion. Absolute space is therefore nothing more than a kind of ideal within our philosophy, and no longer a harmful aspect of our ontology.

Newton’s influence on the development of philosophy did not end with the close of the eighteenth century. Most obviously, the concepts of absolute space and absolute motion continued to play fundamental roles in philosophical theorizing about space and motion more generally for the next two centuries, and they remain fundamental to discussions today (DiSalle 2006). Newton has also had a deep and lasting influence on numerous other topics in what we now call the philosophy of science, including the status of our knowledge of natural phenomena, the best ideas about scientific methodology, the status of the laws of nature, and much else besides (McMullin 2001 and Smith 2001). It is no exaggeration to say that Newton has a permanent place in the history of modern philosophy.

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Châtelet, Émilie du | Clarke, Samuel | Descartes, René | form vs. matter | Hume, David: Newtonianism and Anti-Newtonianism | Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm | Newton, Isaac | Newton, Isaac: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica | Newton, Isaac: views on space, time, and motion

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• Scientific Methods
• Famous Physicists
• Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton

Apart from discovering the cause of the fall of an apple from a tree, that is, the laws of gravity, Sir Isaac Newton was perhaps one of the most brilliant and greatest physicists of all time. He shaped dramatic and surprising discoveries in the laws of physics that we believe our universe obeys, and hence it changed the way we appreciate and relate to the world around us.

Table of Contents

About sir isaac newton, sir isaac newton’s education, awards and achievements, some achievements of isaac newton in brief.

• Universal Law of Gravitation

Optics and Light

Sir Isaac Newton was born on 4th January 1643 in a small village of England called Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. He was an English physicist and mathematician, and one of the important thinkers in the Scientific Revolution.

He discovered the phenomenon of white light integrated with colours which further laid the foundation of modern physical optics. His famous three laws of Motion in mechanics and the formulation of the laws of gravitation completely changed the track of physics across the globe. He was the originator of calculus in mathematics. A scientist like him is considered an excellent gift by nature to the world of physics.

Isaac Newton studied at the Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661. At 22 in 1665, a year after beginning his four-year scholarship, Newton finished his first significant discovery in mathematics, where he revealed the generalized binomial theorem. He was bestowed with his B.A. degree in the same year.

Isaac Newton held numerous positions throughout his life. In 1671, he was invited to join the Royal Society of London after developing a new and enhanced version of the reflecting telescope.

He was later elected President of the Royal Society (1703). Sir Isaac Newton ran for a seat in Parliament in 1689. He won the election and became a Member of Parliament for Cambridge University. He was also appointed as a Warden of the Mint in 1969. Due to his exemplary work and dedication to the mint, he was chosen Master of the Mint in 1700. After being knighted in 1705, he was known as “Sir Isaac Newton.”

His mind was ablaze with original ideas. He made significant progress in three distinct fields – with some of the most profound discoveries in:

• Calculus, the mathematics of change, which is vital to our understanding of the world around us
• Optics and the behaviour of light
• He also built the first working reflecting telescope
• He showed that Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are exceptional cases of Newton’s universal gravitation.

Sir Isaac Newton’s Contribution in Calculus

Sir Isaac Newton was the first individual to develop calculus. Modern physics and physical chemistry are almost impossible without calculus, as it is the mathematics of change.

The idea of differentiating calculus into differential calculus, integral calculus and differential equations came from Newton’s fertile mind. Today, most mathematicians give equal credit to Newton and Leibniz for calculus’s discovery.

Law of Universal Gravitation

The famous apple that he saw falling from a tree led him to discover the force of gravitation and its laws. Ultimately, he realised that the pressure causing the apple’s fall is responsible for the moon to orbit the earth, as well as comets and other planets to revolve around the sun. The force can be felt throughout the universe. Hence, Newton called it the Universal Law of Gravitation .

Newton discovered the equation that allows us to compute the force of gravity between two objects.

Newton’s Laws of Motion

• First law of Motion
• Second Law of Motion
• Third law of Motion

Watch the video and learn about the history of the concept of Gravitation

Sir Isaac Newton also accomplished himself in experimental methods and working with equipment. He built the world’s first reflecting telescope . This telescope focuses all the light from a curved mirror. Here are some advantages of reflecting telescopes from optics and light –

• They are inexpensive to make.
• They are easier to make in large sizes, gathering lighter, allowing advanced magnification.
• They don’t suffer focusing issues linked with lenses called chromatic aberration.

Isaac Newton also proved that white light is not a simple phenomenon with the help of a glass prism. He confirmed that it is made up of all of the colours of the rainbow, which could recombine to form white light again.

Watch the video and solve complete NCERT exercise questions in the chapter Gravitation

Frequently Asked Questions

How did newton discover gravity.

Seeing an apple fall from the tree made him think about the forces of nature.

What is Calculus in Mathematics?

Calculus is the study of differentiation and integration. Calculus explains the changes in values, on a small and large scale, related to any function.

Define Reflecting Telescope.

It’s a telescope invented by Newton that uses mirrors to collect and focus the light towards the eyepiece.

Name all the Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion.

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion are:

• The Law of Ellipses
• The Law of Equal Areas
• The Law of Harmonies

Who discovered Gravity?

Watch the full summary of the chapter gravitation class 9.

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Culture History

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was a renowned English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He is best known for formulating the laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. Newton’s contributions laid the foundation for classical mechanics and greatly influenced the scientific revolution.

Early Life and Education

Isaac Newton’s early life and education were marked by adversity, academic prowess, and the pursuit of knowledge. Born prematurely on December 25, 1642, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, Newton entered a world where his father had passed away before his birth. His mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried when he was three, leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandmother while she pursued her second marriage. This early familial dynamic played a significant role in shaping Newton’s formative years.

In his early childhood, Newton’s intellectual curiosity began to manifest. His aptitude for learning and mechanical tinkering became evident, hinting at the scientific genius that would later define his legacy. However, financial constraints nearly derailed his education. The death of his stepfather provided a pivotal turning point, allowing Newton’s mother to return to Woolsthorpe and recognize her son’s academic potential.

Newton attended the King’s School in Grantham, where his academic abilities flourished. He displayed an early interest in mechanics and technology, often experimenting with various devices and demonstrating an innate talent for solving mathematical problems. It became apparent that Newton was destined for intellectual pursuits beyond the ordinary.

In 1661, at the age of 18, Newton entered the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College, a decision that would profoundly shape his future. His enrollment was initially as a “subsizar,” a student who performed menial tasks to offset tuition costs. Despite the humble beginnings, Newton’s exceptional academic performance caught the attention of his professors, leading to financial assistance that allowed him to focus on his studies.

At Cambridge, Newton delved into the works of influential thinkers like René Descartes and Galileo Galilei . His rigorous engagement with mathematical and scientific ideas laid the groundwork for the profound contributions he would make to these fields. Newton’s thirst for knowledge and keen intellect set him apart, earning him the distinction of a scholar with unparalleled potential.

While at Cambridge, Newton’s attention gravitated toward mathematics. He immersed himself in the study of Euclidean geometry, algebra, and other mathematical disciplines. His early interest in mechanics also found expression through the study of natural philosophy. This period of intense intellectual exploration laid the foundation for his groundbreaking contributions to various scientific disciplines.

Newton’s academic journey at Cambridge unfolded during a tumultuous period in English history. The mid-17th century witnessed political upheavals, including the English Civil War and the execution of King Charles I. These events had a profound impact on the academic environment, with universities experiencing disruptions and shifts in leadership. Despite these challenges, Newton’s commitment to learning and inquiry remained unwavering.

In 1665, while the university temporarily closed due to the bubonic plague, Newton returned to Woolsthorpe. This period, often referred to as his “annus mirabilis” or “miracle year,” proved to be a watershed moment in his life. During this time of isolation, Newton made groundbreaking discoveries that would reshape the landscape of physics and mathematics.

One of Newton’s major achievements during this period was the development of calculus, a mathematical framework that he used to solve problems related to motion and change. Although contemporaneous with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the priority dispute over the invention of calculus persisted for years.

Newton also explored optics and conducted experiments with light and prisms, unraveling the mysteries of color. His work in optics culminated in the publication of “Opticks” in 1704, where he presented his theories on the nature of light and color, along with observations on refraction and reflection.

Newton’s return to Cambridge in 1667 marked the beginning of his rise within academic circles. He was appointed as a Fellow of Trinity College and later became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a prestigious position previously held by luminaries like Isaac Barrow. Newton’s lectures and writings during this time showcased his growing influence in the academic community.

Newton’s achievements in mathematics and physics culminated in the publication of the Principia in 1687. This seminal work laid out the laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, and a comprehensive mathematical framework for understanding the physical world. The Principia cemented Newton’s status as a preeminent figure in science and left an indelible mark on the scientific revolution.

Despite his profound contributions to academia, Newton’s personal life was marked by eccentricities and occasional periods of social withdrawal. His personality, often described as complex, reflected a blend of intense focus on his work and moments of contentious interactions with contemporaries.

Isaac Newton’s early life and education form a narrative of resilience, intellectual curiosity, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. From his humble beginnings in Woolsthorpe to his groundbreaking discoveries at Cambridge, Newton’s journey laid the groundwork for his enduring legacy as one of the greatest scientists in history. His contributions not only advanced the understanding of the physical world but also set a standard for scientific inquiry that continues to inspire generations of scholars.

Scientific Achievements

Isaac Newton’s scientific achievements are a testament to his genius and profound impact on the foundations of physics, mathematics, and astronomy. His groundbreaking work, particularly detailed in “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (Principia) and “Opticks,” laid the groundwork for classical mechanics, the laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, and our understanding of optics.

Newton’s most enduring contribution is undoubtedly the formulation of the three laws of motion. Published in the Principia in 1687, these laws provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the motion of objects. The first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net external force. The second law quantifies the relationship between an object’s mass, its acceleration, and the applied force. The third law asserts that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

These laws revolutionized physics, providing a unified description of motion that could explain phenomena ranging from falling apples to planetary orbits. Newton’s laws of motion became foundational principles, shaping the trajectory of classical mechanics and forming the basis for subsequent advancements in the field.

In addition to the laws of motion, Newton’s law of universal gravitation stands as one of the cornerstones of classical physics. Published in the Principia, this law describes the gravitational force between two objects as directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Newton’s law of universal gravitation provided a unified explanation for both terrestrial and celestial phenomena, offering a comprehensive understanding of the forces governing the motion of celestial bodies.

The impact of the law of universal gravitation extended beyond theoretical physics. It enabled accurate predictions of celestial events and orbits, laying the foundation for advancements in celestial mechanics. Newton’s law of gravitation became a fundamental tool for astronomers, allowing them to describe and predict the motions of planets and other celestial bodies with unprecedented accuracy.

Newton’s work in optics, as detailed in “Opticks,” further demonstrated his scientific prowess. In the early 1670s, he conducted experiments with light and prisms, revealing the phenomenon of dispersion where white light could be decomposed into a spectrum of colors. Newton’s experiments and observations laid the groundwork for the understanding of color and light, challenging prevailing theories and offering a new perspective on the nature of optics.

In “Opticks,” published in 1704, Newton presented his theories on the nature of light and color. He proposed that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors and explored the properties of light, including reflection and refraction. Newton’s work in optics significantly advanced our understanding of the behavior of light, influencing subsequent developments in the field and contributing to the wave-particle duality theory that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Newton’s contributions to mathematics are equally significant, particularly his development of calculus. Although there was a priority dispute with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the invention of calculus, Newton’s work in this field became an essential tool in physics and mathematics. Calculus provided a powerful mathematical framework for describing and analyzing motion, change, and rates of change—fundamental concepts in the study of the physical world.

Newton’s impact on mathematics extended to his development of the binomial theorem and his contributions to the study of infinite series. His work in these areas not only facilitated mathematical calculations but also laid the groundwork for future developments in mathematical analysis.

Beyond his specific scientific contributions, Newton played a crucial role in advancing the scientific method. His emphasis on systematic experimentation, empirical observation, and mathematical analysis became a model for scientific inquiry. The Principia, in particular, exemplified Newton’s commitment to rigorously testing hypotheses and deriving conclusions based on evidence—a methodology that continues to guide scientific research to this day.

In addition to his scientific pursuits, Newton held various public positions, showcasing the practical applications of his scientific insights. He served as a Member of Parliament and later as the Master of the Mint, where he was instrumental in reorganizing the British currency. Newton’s engagement with practical matters demonstrated the real-world impact of scientific thinking and problem-solving.

Despite his towering achievements, Newton’s life was not without challenges and complexities. His personality was marked by periods of intense focus on his work, as well as moments of social withdrawal and conflict with contemporaries. Newton’s private life and interpersonal relationships reflected the intricate interplay of his intellectual pursuits and personal struggles.

Isaac Newton’s scientific achievements form a monumental legacy that continues to shape our understanding of the physical world. His laws of motion, law of universal gravitation, contributions to optics, and development of calculus have left an indelible mark on physics and mathematics. Newton’s work not only advanced scientific knowledge but also set a standard for the scientific method, inspiring generations of researchers to explore the mysteries of the universe with curiosity and rigor.

Principia Mathematica

“Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” commonly known as the Principia Mathematica, is Isaac Newton’s magnum opus, published in 1687. This groundbreaking work laid the foundation for classical mechanics, revolutionizing the scientific understanding of motion, gravity, and celestial mechanics. The Principia is regarded as one of the most influential scientific books ever written and represents a pinnacle in the history of physics .

The Principia consists of three books, each addressing specific aspects of Newton’s comprehensive system of natural philosophy. The first book, titled “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” introduces the three laws of motion—fundamental principles that govern the motion of objects. These laws provided a unified framework for understanding both terrestrial and celestial phenomena, establishing a universal language for describing the dynamics of the physical world.

Newton’s first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force. The second law relates the force acting on an object to its mass and acceleration, expressing the fundamental relationship between force and motion. The third law asserts that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction—a principle that applies to the interaction of all objects in the universe.

These laws formed the cornerstone of classical mechanics, offering a coherent and systematic explanation for a wide range of physical phenomena. Newton’s mathematical formulation of these laws allowed for precise predictions and calculations, transforming the study of motion into a quantitative science.

The second book of the Principia delves into fluid motion and the resistance of fluids. Newton explored the behavior of fluids, providing insights into the motion of liquids and gases under various conditions. While the second book is less well-known than the first, it demonstrated Newton’s versatility in addressing a diverse array of physical phenomena.

The third book, titled “The System of the World,” is dedicated to celestial mechanics and the law of universal gravitation. In this section, Newton presents his revolutionary theory of gravity, proposing that every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. The law of universal gravitation provided a unified explanation for the motion of celestial bodies, reconciling the orbits of planets with a single, underlying principle.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Principia is Newton’s use of mathematical tools, particularly his development of calculus. While the calculus was independently developed by Newton and the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the Principia served as a platform for showcasing the power and utility of this mathematical framework. Newton’s use of calculus enabled him to express his laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation in precise mathematical terms, facilitating the quantitative analysis of physical phenomena.

The impact of the Principia extended far beyond the scientific community. Its publication marked a turning point in the history of science, providing a methodical and systematic approach to understanding the natural world. The Principia laid the groundwork for the scientific revolution, emphasizing the importance of empirical observation, experimentation, and mathematical analysis in the pursuit of knowledge.

Newton’s work was met with both admiration and criticism. The clarity and elegance of his explanations, coupled with the predictive power of his laws, garnered widespread acclaim. However, the intricacies of the mathematical reasoning and the novel nature of the ideas presented in the Principia also led to challenges in comprehension and acceptance.

The Principia Mathematica represents a synthesis of Newton’s diverse intellectual pursuits, incorporating his contributions to mathematics, physics, and astronomy into a cohesive and revolutionary system. The impact of the Principia reverberates through the centuries, influencing subsequent generations of scientists and serving as a foundational text for the study of classical mechanics.

Conflict with Leibniz

The conflict between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the invention of calculus is one of the most famous disputes in the history of mathematics. This controversy, often referred to as the “calculus priority dispute,” unfolded in the late 17th century and has left a lasting impact on the perception of both mathematicians’ contributions to this fundamental branch of mathematics.

The origins of the conflict can be traced back to the independent development of calculus by Newton and Leibniz during the same period. Calculus, a mathematical framework for dealing with rates of change and the accumulation of quantities, was a revolutionary development with profound implications for various scientific fields, including physics and engineering.

Isaac Newton began working on the mathematical methods that would later be recognized as calculus in the mid-1660s. His efforts were closely tied to his investigations into physics and celestial mechanics. Newton’s approach involved the method of fluxions, a conceptual framework that dealt with quantities in motion and their rates of change. He used this method to develop a systematic approach to calculus, allowing him to solve problems related to motion, acceleration, and the computation of areas under curves.

Meanwhile, in the late 1670s, the German mathematician and philosopher Leibniz was independently developing his own notation and methods for calculus. Leibniz introduced the integral sign (∫) and the differential notation (dy/dx), which are still used today. Leibniz’s notation and approach were more accessible and user-friendly than Newton’s fluxions, making calculus more widely adoptable.

The controversy ignited in the early 18th century when both Newton and Leibniz published their respective works on calculus. Newton’s major contributions were outlined in his “Method of Fluxions” in the 1670s, but he did not publish this work until much later. On the other hand, Leibniz published his first paper on calculus, “Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis,” in 1684.

The timing of the publications and the differing notations led to a heated dispute over priority. Newton and his followers, including some prominent mathematicians of the time, argued that Newton had developed the calculus first, using the method of fluxions. Newton was vocal about his claim, asserting that Leibniz had taken the ideas from him without proper acknowledgment.

Leibniz, on the other hand, defended his work vigorously. He argued that he had independently developed calculus and that his notation was distinctly different from Newton’s method of fluxions. Leibniz contended that his approach was more intuitive and user-friendly, emphasizing the clarity and simplicity of his notation.

The dispute escalated as supporters on both sides engaged in a war of words through letters, publications, and personal interactions. The scientific community became polarized, with mathematicians taking sides in what became a bitter and public controversy. Notable figures, including the French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, sided with either Newton or Leibniz, further fueling the conflict.

In 1711, the Royal Society formed a committee to investigate the priority dispute. The committee, largely composed of Newton’s supporters, concluded that Newton was the first inventor of calculus. This verdict, however, did not quell the controversy, as Leibniz and his followers rejected the committee’s findings.

The calculus priority dispute had broader implications beyond the personal rivalry between Newton and Leibniz. It divided the mathematical community and hindered collaboration and communication between mathematicians for many years. The dispute also contributed to a delay in the widespread acceptance and dissemination of calculus.

The controversy persisted even after Newton’s death in 1727 and Leibniz’s death in 1716. It wasn’t until the 19th century that a more nuanced and objective assessment of the contributions of Newton and Leibniz to calculus emerged. Mathematicians such as Augustin-Louis Cauchy and Karl Weierstrass recognized the independent significance of both approaches and emphasized the collective nature of mathematical progress.

Ultimately, the dispute over calculus priority was a complex and multifaceted issue. While Newton and Leibniz independently developed calculus, their different notations and approaches reflected distinct mathematical insights. Both mathematicians made profound contributions to the field, and today calculus is often taught using a combination of their notations and methods, acknowledging the richness of both traditions.

In the annals of mathematical history, the calculus priority dispute serves as a cautionary tale about the challenges of determining priority and the importance of fostering a collaborative and open scientific community. It also highlights the human aspect of scientific discovery, where rivalries and personal conflicts can sometimes overshadow the collective progress of knowledge. Despite the contentious history, the legacy of Newton and Leibniz endures in the foundational principles of calculus that continue to shape the landscape of mathematics and science.

Personal Life

Isaac Newton’s personal life was marked by a complex interplay of intellectual brilliance, social isolation, and occasional bouts of eccentric behavior. Born prematurely on December 25, 1642 (Julian calendar), in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, Newton faced early challenges that shaped his character and influenced the trajectory of his life.

Newton’s father died before his birth, and his mother remarried when he was three. Raised by his maternal grandmother while his mother pursued her second marriage, Newton’s early years were marked by a sense of familial detachment. This period of relative solitude may have contributed to the development of his introspective and independent nature.

In his formative years, Newton attended the King’s School in Grantham, where he exhibited exceptional academic prowess. His intellectual curiosity and a penchant for mechanical tinkering hinted at the scientific genius that would later define his legacy. Despite these qualities, financial constraints initially threatened to disrupt his education until the death of his stepfather allowed his mother to return to Woolsthorpe, recognizing her son’s academic potential.

Newton’s enrollment at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1661 marked the beginning of a new chapter. At Cambridge, he immersed himself in the study of mathematics and natural philosophy, laying the groundwork for the groundbreaking discoveries that would shape his reputation as one of history’s greatest scientists.

While Newton’s professional life flourished, his personal life was characterized by a complex and sometimes tumultuous nature. Known for his intense focus on his work, Newton exhibited periods of social withdrawal and a tendency to immerse himself in solitary pursuits. His dedication to his studies and scientific inquiries often took precedence over social interactions.

Newton’s personality was marked by a combination of brilliance and reticence. He had a reputation for being reserved and introspective, with a meticulous and methodical approach to his work. Newton’s notebooks reveal the depth of his intellectual pursuits, showcasing his rigorous thought processes and commitment to empirical observation.

Despite his academic achievements, Newton faced personal challenges and conflicts. His tenure as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge brought both recognition and demands on his time. Newton’s role in university governance and his involvement in academic disputes occasionally placed him at odds with colleagues, contributing to a complex social dynamic.

In the late 1670s and early 1680s, Newton experienced a period of intense intellectual productivity, known as his “annus mirabilis” or “miracle year.” During this time, he made groundbreaking contributions to mathematics, optics, and physics. Newton’s development of calculus, his work on the nature of light and color, and the formulation of the laws of motion occurred in rapid succession, demonstrating the breadth of his intellectual capabilities.

The publication of the Principia Mathematica in 1687 solidified Newton’s reputation as a preeminent scientist. However, the intense focus on his work and his tendency to withdraw from social engagements sometimes fueled misconceptions about his character. Newton’s dedication to his studies and scientific pursuits often led him to prioritize intellectual endeavors over personal relationships.

In 1696, Newton’s personal life took a different turn when he accepted the position of Warden of the Royal Mint. This marked a transition from his academic career to a role with significant administrative responsibilities. Newton’s tenure at the Mint was characterized by his efforts to combat counterfeiting and reorganize the British currency. His pragmatic approach to these matters demonstrated a practical side of Newton that extended beyond theoretical pursuits.

Newton’s later years included further public service, as he became Master of the Mint in 1699. Despite his involvement in administrative roles, he continued to engage with scientific matters, publishing works on mathematics and pursuing his interests in alchemy and theology.

In his private life, Newton never married and led a largely solitary existence. His personal relationships were limited, and he maintained a degree of distance from others. Newton’s focus on his work, combined with his reserved nature, contributed to the perception of him as a somewhat enigmatic figure.

Newton’s death on March 20, 1727, marked the end of a life characterized by intellectual brilliance and a complex personal journey. His legacy endures in the principles of physics and mathematics that bear his name, but the nuances of his personal life add a layer of humanity to the narrative of a scientific giant. Newton’s story serves as a reminder of the intricate relationship between the personal and professional aspects of a brilliant mind, leaving a lasting imprint on the history of science and the understanding of the universe.

Isaac Newton’s legacy is indelibly imprinted on the fabric of human knowledge, spanning mathematics, physics, astronomy, and the scientific method. His groundbreaking contributions to these fields have left an enduring impact, shaping the way we understand the physical world and influencing subsequent generations of scientists and thinkers.

Newton’s most celebrated work, “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (Principia), published in 1687, stands as a monumental achievement in the history of science. In Principia, Newton formulated the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, providing a comprehensive and mathematically rigorous framework for understanding the dynamics of the physical universe. These laws became the cornerstone of classical mechanics, revolutionizing physics and serving as the foundation for subsequent developments in the field.

The laws of motion articulated in the Principia not only explained the motion of objects on Earth but also provided a universal language to describe the orbits of celestial bodies. Newton’s law of universal gravitation demonstrated that the force governing the fall of an apple near his childhood home was the same force dictating the movements of planets in the heavens. This unification of terrestrial and celestial mechanics represented a monumental shift in scientific thinking, fostering a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of physical phenomena.

Newton’s legacy in mathematics is equally profound. His independent development of calculus, although entangled in a contentious priority dispute with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, laid the groundwork for a powerful mathematical tool that transcended disciplinary boundaries. Calculus became an indispensable language for describing change, motion, and rates of change, providing a versatile framework for scientific inquiry.

The mathematical notation introduced by Newton and Leibniz remains in use today, a testament to the enduring legacy of their contributions. The integral sign (∫) and the differential notation (dy/dx), both associated with Leibniz, have become fundamental symbols in mathematical discourse. Newton’s notation for fluxions and the derivative (dy/dt) also persists, reflecting the dual legacy of these mathematical pioneers.

Beyond his specific mathematical and scientific contributions, Newton’s legacy is embedded in the scientific method. His emphasis on empirical observation, systematic experimentation, and the use of mathematics as a tool for understanding the natural world set a standard for scientific inquiry that reverberates through the centuries. The Principia exemplifies this methodical approach, with Newton meticulously deriving conclusions from carefully conducted experiments and observations.

Newton’s commitment to the scientific method had a profound influence on the Enlightenment, a period characterized by a shift towards reason, empirical evidence, and a questioning of traditional authority. His work inspired subsequent generations of scientists to approach problems with a rigorous and systematic mindset, laying the groundwork for the scientific revolution.

The impact of Newton’s ideas extended beyond the scientific community, influencing philosophy, literature, and culture. Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and John Locke embraced Newtonian principles, celebrating the power of reason and the potential for human understanding to unlock the mysteries of the universe. The concept of a clockwork universe governed by precise laws became a metaphor for a rational and orderly cosmos.

Newton’s legacy is also evident in the development of technology and engineering. His laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation provided the theoretical foundation for advancements in mechanics and the design of machinery. The principles outlined in the Principia became instrumental in the Industrial Revolution, fueling innovations in transportation, manufacturing, and engineering.

In addition to his scientific and mathematical pursuits, Newton played a significant role in public life. His tenure at the Royal Mint, where he served as Warden and later as Master, demonstrated his practical skills and contributed to the stabilization of the British currency. Newton’s influence extended to matters of public policy, reflecting a versatility that complemented his academic achievements.

While Newton’s legacy is undeniably monumental, it is essential to acknowledge the complexities of his character. His reserved and sometimes contentious nature, coupled with periods of social withdrawal, added a human dimension to his story. Newton’s personal idiosyncrasies, including his interests in alchemy and theology, underscored the multifaceted nature of his intellectual pursuits.

In the centuries following Newton’s death in 1727, his legacy has continued to evolve. His ideas have withstood the test of time, remaining foundational to the study of physics and mathematics. The principles elucidated in the Principia remain essential tools for scientists and engineers, guiding our exploration of the universe from the smallest particles to the vastness of space.

Newton’s legacy serves as a reminder of the transformative power of human intellect and the enduring impact of a single individual on the trajectory of human knowledge. His contributions transcend disciplinary boundaries, influencing not only the scientific community but also the broader landscape of human thought and endeavor. As we continue to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, we do so standing on the intellectual shoulders of Sir Isaac Newton, whose legacy echoes through the annals of scientific history.

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Essay on Isaac Newton in 100 Words

Sir Isaac Newton, a brilliant scientist and mathematician, is one of history’s most influential figures. His groundbreaking discoveries in physics and mathematics continue to shape our understanding of the world.

Newton’s Laws of Motion

Newton formulated the laws of motion, which describe how objects move. His first law states that objects at rest stay at rest, and objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by a force. These laws revolutionized physics.

According to physicist Dr. Sarah Turner, Newton’s laws are fundamental in understanding the behavior of everything, from falling apples to spacecraft.

Universal Law of Gravitation

Newton’s law of universal gravitation explains why objects are attracted to each other. It states that every mass attracts every other mass with a force. This law helped explain planetary motion and is still used in space exploration.

Astronomer Dr. Robert Adams notes that Newton’s law of gravitation is the foundation of modern astronomy and our ability to predict celestial movements.

Conclusion of Essay on Isaac Newton in 100 Words

In conclusion, Sir Isaac Newton’s contributions to science and mathematics are immeasurable. His laws of motion and universal gravitation transformed our understanding of the physical world and continue to inspire scientists today. Newton’s genius and legacy remain a testament to the power of human curiosity and exploration.

Also Check: The Essay on Essay: All you need to know

Voltaire's essay on Isaac Newton

[The essay was included in Voltaire's Philosophical Letters (1734).  For discussion of this work, consult the introduction to Voltaire's essay on Frances Bacon.  The translation is by William F. Fleming, from The Works of Voltaire:  A Contemporary Version (New Yourk:  Dingwall-Rock, 1927) Vol. XIX,  Pt. I,  pp. 172-76]

Newton was first intended for the Church.  He set out with the study of divinity, and retained a tincture of it to his dying day.  He very seriously adopted the cause of Arius against Athanasius , and even went farther than he, as all the Socinians actually do.  There are at present a great many of the learned of this opinion; I shall not venture to criticize this communion, as they make no distinct body.  They are, moreover, divided among themselves; and several of them have brought their system to pure Deism, to which they have adapted the morality of Jesus Christ.  Newton was by no means of the number of these latter, and differed from the English Church only on the point of consubstantiation, being orthodox in all the rest.

A proof of the sincerity of his faith is his writing a commentary on "Revelation."  Here he finds it clear, to a demonstration, that the pope is Antichrist, and explains the rest of the book exactly as the other commentators have done.  Possibly he meant, by this commentary, to console the rest of the human race for the great superiority he had over them.  There are several who, having read the little treatise on metaphysics which Newton has placed at the end of his " Principia Mathematica ," have met with something fully as obscure as the Apocalypse.  Metaphysicians and theologians are much like those gladiators who were obliged to fight hoodwinked.  But when Newton worked, with the bandage removed from his eyes, on his mathematics, his sight pierced to the utmost limits of nature.

He invented the calculation of infinites ; he has discovered and demonstrated a new principle, which sets the universe in motion.  Light was wholly unknown before his time.  There were only confused and false ideas of it, till Newton pronounced the most admirable fiat, and said, "Let light be known," and light was known.

He was the inventor of reflecting telescopes; and the first that ever was seen was the work of his own hands.  He also demonstrated the reason why the power and focus of common telescopes can not be augmented.  It was owing to this new telescope that a German took Newton for a mechanic, that is, for a spectacle-maker.  " Artifex quidam nomine Newton ," says he, in some paltry book.  But posterity has since sufficiently avenged the affront.  He had still greater injustice done him in France, where he was held as a blundering trier of experiments; and because Mariotte made use of false prisms, the discoveries of Newton were exploded.

He was admired by his countrymen as soon as he had published and proved the truth of his theory by his newly invented instruments; but it was forty years before he was properly known in France.  But to make amends, we had the fluted and ramose matter of Descartes, the little soft vortices of the reverend father Malebranche, and the system of M. Private de Molière.

There is no one of those in the least degree acquainted with Cardinal Polignac, who has not heard him say a number of times that Newton was certainly a Peripatetic , and that his colored rays and his attraction bordered on atheism.  Cardinal Polignac joined to all those advantages he had received from nature a very great share of eloquence; he composed verses in Latin with a surprising and a happy facility; but he knew no other philosophy than that of Descartes; all of whose arguments he had retained, just like so many dates.  He had not yet become a geometrician, and nature had not formed him for a philosopher.  He was an excellent judge of "Catiline's Conspiracy," or of "Æneid"; but by no means fit to decide on the merits of a Locke or a Newton.

When one considers that Newton, Locke, Clarke, and Leibniz would have been persecuted in France, imprisoned at Rome, and burned at Lisbon, what are we to think of human reason?  One would swear it was a native of England in the present age at least.  In the time of Queen Mary there was a violent persecution on account of the proper way of pronouncing Greek, in which the persecutors were, as usual, in the wrong.  They who put Galileo before the Inquisition were still more so; and every inquisitor ought to blush, from the bottom of his soul, at the sight of the sphere of Copernicus.  Nevertheless, had Newton been born in Portugal, and had a Dominican friar happened to discover a heresy in his inverted ratio of the squares of the distances of the planets, Sir Isaac Newton had certainly walked in procession in his sanbenito at some auto-da-fé .

It has been often asked how it comes to pass that they who, by their function, should be learned and human, have so commonly proved to the last degree ignorant and implacable.  Their ignorance was wholly owing to their having studied too closely, and too much; and their unrelenting cruelty was occasioned by the consciousness that their wretched learning was the just object of the contempt of true philosophers.  Notwithstanding, those very inquisitors who had the effrontery to condemn the system of Copernicus not only as heretical but as absurd, had not the slightest grounds of apprehension from that system.  Although the earth performed her annual revolution around the sun, together with the rest of the planets, the Church would, for all that, have enjoyed both her revenues and her dignities.  Even the ecclesiastical dogmas are in perfect safety, when impugned only by philosophers:  all the academies under the cope of heaven are not able, with their utmost efforts, to make the smallest revolution in the common creed of a nation, let its tenets be never so absurd.  From what source, then, arises this pious rage which has so often inflamed the disciples of Anitus against those of Socrates ?  It is because the former are conscious that they merit and enjoy the sovereign contempt of the latter.

I had a notion in my younger days that Newton had made his fortune by his extraordinary merit.  I made no doubt that both court and city at London had created him, with one common consent, chief manager and supreme director of the coin of the kingdom.  I was herein greatly mistaken; Sir Isaac Newton had a pretty niece, called Mrs. Conduite, who had the good fortune to please the lord high treasurer, Halifax . Had it not been for this handsome niece, his doctrine of gravitation and infinitesimals had been wholly useless to him, and he might have starved with all his talents.

adopted the cause of Arius against Athanasius :  Arius,(250-336) was a North African Greek bishop who argued (c. 319) that the Son was not co-equal or co-equal with the Father, but rather (only) the first and highest of God's creations out of nothing, and hence of a substance different from that of the Father.  Athanasius (c.296-393) opposed Arius at the Council of Nicea (325), which insisted that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, and declared the doctrine of Arius a heresy.  The controversy was not definitively settled, however, until 381, at the Council of Constantinople.  Return .

Socinians :  Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) was a Protestant reformer born in Siena, Italy, who developed the anti-Trinitarian views of his uncle, Laelius Socinus (1525-62) into the doctrine known as Socinianism . The teaching affirmed that Jesus, though genuinely a revelation of God, was by nature merely a man.  It thus denied that Jesus's crucifixion served as atonement for original sin.  But it also insisted that Christ had been raised by God to the office of divinity, and so refused, against the stricter unitarians, to renounce the worship of Christ.  Return .

the calculation of infinites :  This is what today is called "the calculus," which is necessary in physics, for example, in specifying instantaneous acceleration (due, for instance, to gravity or propulsion).  Cf. the reference to "infinitesimals" in the final paragraph of the present essay.  Return .

"Artifex quidam nomine Newton" :  "a craftsman by the name of Newton."  Return .

"Catiline's Conspiracy" and the Æneid :  In 63 BC, during his term as consul, the Roman senator Marcus Tullius Cicero (103-43 BC) prosecuted five prominent citizens for their participation in a plot by the senator Catiline to seize power by violence.  Cicero's five speeches before the Senate are collectively known as "Catiline's Conspiracy," and were considered classical examples of Latin political oratory.  In the Æneid (modeled on the epics of Homer), the Roman poet Virgil (70-19 BC) retold the myth of the founding of Rome by the Trojan Æneas, survivor of the Trojan War.  The epic qualifies as the greatest poem in Latin.  Return .

Peripatetic :  Aristotelian philosophers were nicknamed "Peripatetics," after the habit reputed of Aristotle of expounding his ideas to his students while walking about.  Return .

san benito and auto da fé :  An auto da fé  - or "act of faith" - was a public ceremony in which the punishment assigned by the Inquisition would be carried out.  This could range from flogging to burning at the stake (usually after strangulation).  Persons condemned to the stake were taken to the public square dressed in a wide piece of cloth marked with the sign of the cross.  This scapulary was called a san benito , a name that derives from the sacco benito , or sackcloth, worn by penitents in the early days of the church.  Return .

this pious rage which has so often inflamed the disciples of Anitus against those of Socrates :  In 399 BC the philosopher Socrates was condemned to death by the Athenian Assembly on a charge of having corrupted the youth of Athens by teaching falsehoods about the gods.  Anitus was the leader of the group of citizens who conducted the prosecution before the Assembly.

The trial of Socrates is the subject of Plato's dialogue known as the Apology (which means not "apology" but "defense").  Plato covers the aftermath of the trial in the Crito , in which Socrates explains why it would not be morally permissible for him to avail himself of the opportunity arranged by his friends for him to escape from prison, and in the Phaedo , which depicts the discussions Socrates had with his disciples the night before his discussion, and of his drinking the hemlock.  This latter is the subject of Jacques-Louis David's painting The Death of Socrates (1787).

Halifax :  Lord Halifax was Chancellor of the Exchequer.  In 1696 he appointed Newton Warden of the Mint, and three years later, on the basis of his excellent administration, Master of the Mint.  As a unitarian in religion, Newton was ineligible to be appointed don at his university, Cambridge, where he was professor (and whom he twice represented in parliament).  His scientific work had meanwhile ceased with a breakdown in 1693.  His appointments in connection with the mint ensured an income in keeping with his stature.  Return .

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Story Life of Sir Isaac Newton

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Isaac Newton Essay in English

Isaac Newton: The Life And Inventions Of The Most Influential Scientist

Sir Isaac Newton Essay in English Isaac Newton transformed the way people understand the universe. He was honored in his own lifetime. He was the founder of different laws, such as Gravity, Motion, and Calculus. He put his hard efforts to shape the rational view of the world. But if we go deeper into the story of Isaac Newton, we will come to know a lot about him. His story is related to a monstrous egoistic person, who supposed that he alone could understand the creation of God. His private life was different, which was packed with petty jealousies, a cruel quest for reputation, and bitter rivalries.

Isaac Newton was born on the 25 th of December in 1642. He was the greatest and most powerful scientist on the planet. He was an English physicist, astronomer, theologian, and mathematician. He made many experiments using practical approaches and invented the principles of classical mechanics. He was blessed with the smart mind of all time.

Sir Isaac Newton Essay in English

Essay on isaac newton in english.

He studied in the King’s School, which was an educational center for boys located in Grantham, Lincolnshire at the age of 12. As far as the research is concerned, the young Newton was not good at studies in his early years.

When he reached the age of 15, his mother became widowed for the second time. This is the main reason why he left the school and was supposed to manage a farm to meet the financial crisis. But he did not like this work at all and often did not fulfill his responsibilities.

Rather than working, he made many market visits in Grantham so that he could read and study. He was very keen on studies, which inspired his mother to send him back to school so that he could complete his education.

After completing his school days, Isaac Newton went to the Trinity College at Cambridge in 1661 when he was 20 years old. He liked to carry out his own research rather than believing the professors. This is why he transferred to Cambridge University.

He made many contributions in the field of mathematics, which included the invention of the generalized binomial theorem that later evolved into the mathematical theory of ‘Calculus.’ In addition, he also gave viewpoints for theories of gravity and planetary motion.

As there are different principles of Physics out, these all have gone through different researches and all because of Newton’s keen interest. He also invented the theory of light and color.

Also Read: Who is the Father of English Essay

His inspiration came from many modern minds such as John Wallis, Johann Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes. In 1666, he did a lot of experiments on light composition. He also got success in proving that prisms separate colors.

His creation of the first refracting telescope was grounded on the same theory of prisms, which states that a prism decomposes the white light into different colors from the visible spectrum. He had a great interest in optical works, which led him to become a member of the Royal Society in 1671. It also helped him to earn a reputation.

Isaac Newton felt hesitant in broadcasting his mathematical studies because he was afraid of opposition. In 1687, the first edition of his book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published.

In 1825, this book was translated as ‘The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.’ He defined the universal gravitation and 3 laws of motion, which were derived from Kepler’s law according to his book.

Isaac Newton also wrote the book titled ‘Principia’ and this book has divided into 3 parts. The first part of this book describes the laws of motion, which are:

• Everything continues to be in its rest state unless it is bound to change the state by inertia.
• The change in motion is proportional to the force impressed. It is made in the direction of the straight line, where that force is impressed.
• To every action, there is an opposite reaction always.

Talking about the second part of this book, it describes ‘How these motions are performed in free space without vortices.’ The last part of this book contains the extension of his 3 laws of motion to the world’s frame. It defines that there is a power of gravity that tends to all bodies and is proportional to many quantities of matter of which they include.

He carried on his research work and worked on many practical examples because he did not live in the world of failure. In the end, he proved that all motions of objects on this earth planet and also other celestial bodies are controlled by a similar set of natural laws.

According to the reports, it is believed that Isaac Newton had a very bitter relationship with his mother in his early life. He never got his mother’s love and care from his childhood. This is why he became a person filled with resentment and rage towards women.

Of course, this can be a big reason behind his irrational hatred towards women throughout his entire life. Undoubtedly, there is no proof of romance and love in his life. It was claimed by Dr. William Stukeley in 1727 that he was engaged for one time, but never got married.

In the late 18h Century, Charles Hutton gathered oral traditions about earlier scientists and confirms that ‘do not appear to be any sufficient reason for his never marrying, if he inclined so to do. It is much more likely that he had a constitutional indifference to the state and even to the sex in general.’

He was a serious student of the Bible and also contributed his religious works to God. He is considered the liberal towards the poor during his entire life. It is a popular saying about Newton’s imagination that he was the one to create the laws of gravity by taking the apple as an example when it falls down the tree.

He died in March 1727. He dedicated his whole life to conducting different researches with the same passion and interest that he pursued in theology and science. This is why he is called the ‘father of Astronomy’ in the world of scientists.

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