Slavomira Haywas

HH 205P.4001

23 APR 2004

"Isaac Newton: The

Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"

Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642 in England.

• Entered Cambridge University in 1661
• Remained after completion of his studies in order to prepare his Principia –also known as Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
• Period of peacefulness after the War of Spanish Succession (1700, Spanish King Carlos II. died, without male heir. In his will, he had named Philip of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, his heir. This was an achievement of French diplomacy, which had won over the ambitions of the Austrian line of the Habsburg Dynasty. In February 1701 Philip of Bourbon, yet 17 years old, entered a cheering Madrid; he was crowned King Felipe V. (Philip V.). brought more scientific developments.

• Newton became one of most highly esteemed natural philosophers in Europe.
• King James II had attempted to make the universities of England into Catholic institutions, which Newton was hugely opposed to, so when he was elected Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge to the Convention Parliament of 1689, he gained support for his ideas and increased his public image. He sat again in Parliament in 1701-1702.

• Newton’s philosophy of the world is based upon reason, like:
• Descartes, who, through a period of doubt and errors, and realized that “though I wanted to think everything was false, it was necessary that the “me” who was doing the thinking was something, and noticing this truth, I think, therefore I am, was so certain…that I could accept it as the first principle of the philosophy which I was seeking” and thereby made up the cogito ergo sum theory of life and reason.

• Newton bases his philosophy on a few simple rules:
• Rule 1: “We are to admit no more causes of natural things, than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances”
• Rule 2: “ Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes”
• Rule 3: “ The qualities of bodies, which admit neither intension nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever”
• Thusly made up law for thermodynamic properties of the universe

• Compare Newton to Aristotle, because of logic-based approach used in explaining life and the world

(1) What is Newton's philosophy of the world based upon and how

does this differ from Locke, Hobbes, and virtually every other

philosopher at whose works we have looked?

(2) What earlier philosophers' work does Newton's work resemble and why?

(3) How is Newton "scientific" and what does this tell us about the state of

thinking about the world in the 17th century?

(4) What would the reaction have been to Newton's ideas of his contemporaries, and what

does this tell us about 17th century England?