Newton as natural philosopher

Newton's scientific influence permeates our culture. Forces are measured in newtons, we have “Newton's rings” and Newtonian fluids, we apply Newtonian mechanics in a remarkably wide range of cases, and the law of universal gravitation characterizes what is still considered to be a fundamental force. Indeed, the very idea that a force can be “fundamental,” irreducible to any other force or phenomenon in nature, is largely due to Newton, and still has currency in the twenty-first century. Because of these achievements, Newton is regularly mentioned in the same breath with Copernicus and Galileo as a founder of modern science. Although Newton is rarely listed along with figures like Descartes or Spinoza as a founder of modern philosophy, and although he never wrote a treatise of the order of the Meditations or the Ethics, his influence on philosophy in the early modern period was nevertheless profound. Indeed, Newton was one of the great practitioners of what the early moderns called “natural philosophy.”

Fully understanding Newton means avoiding anachronistically substituting our conception of philosophy in the twenty-first century for what the early moderns understood by “natural philosophy.”