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Newton's Philosophy of Nature: Selections of His Writings (Hafner Library of Classics).
This book provides a wide representation of the interests, problems, and diverse philosophic issues that preoccupied the greatest scientific mind of the 17th century. Grouped in sections corresponding to methods, principles, and theological considerations, these selections feature explanatory notes and cross-references to related essays. 1953 edition.
- GenresPhilosophySciencePhysics
207 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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August 28, 2021
The book’s introduction summarizes what this collection of Newton’s thoughts is about. The hard work that Newton did - and his legacy for today - was his “natural philosophy,” known today as science. In this book, Newton jumps from that foundation to philosophical speculation. This is, the introduction says, Newton’s philosophy of nature. In essence, all of the natural order that Newton scientifically explains can be traced back to an all-powerful Creator-being who, deist-like, set things in motion just so, and let them go. There’s also a strong Platonic element - a footnote says that Newton was strongly influenced by the Cambridge Platonists - in Newton’s science and philosophy of nature. The former was about the sensible world; the latter was about what was real. Thus, “God’s house is the universe.” (1) Gravity explains the large-scale interaction of bodies but it, in turn, was the creation of God.
In any discussion of gravity, the focus is on its attractive force, the literal meaning of gravity. What gets lost is an equally important Newtonian point that bodies of matter also move vis insita, an innate force of matter to preserve its present state, which is a latent force that becomes activated “when another body seeks to change its condition.” These are, respectively, active and passive principles. They are the Western versions of yang and yin (my characterization, not Newton’s). Gravity reaches out and seeks to bring the outside into itself. Inertia is the opposing force that says, “No, it wants to be left alone.” (2)
If one subscribes to the belief that life too is matter, albeit of a special sort, then it’s hard not to notice that it too operates by these same active and passive principles. The former becomes manifest when life brings the outward inside, primarily the importation of energy to counter entropy and sustain life and to make the connections necessary for reproduction. The difference with nonlife is intentionality. Life is teleological. Life is a needy, goal-seeking being to maintain and sustain itself. The passive principle lies latent as a force as long as life’s equilibrium needs are being met. When disturbed by other need-seeking beings or by environmental challenges, the passive principle comes alive and actively resists (repels) intrusion to maintain its equilibrium state. (3) From here, philosophers from the earliest days until now have tacked on the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Or, in Schopenhauer’s different formulation, we are moved outward by pain - to get what we need; to resist what we don’t want. When there’s success on both fronts, there is pleasure, which is Newton’s vis insita (inertial) state.
It is also reasonable to speculate about how these twin energetic principles of attraction and repulsion operate by the same units of intensity seen in Newton’s inverse square law. Attraction (and freedom from being attracted) depends on distance. But that is not a seamless continuum. It rather operates by units that become activated only when intensity is such that there are jumps in energetic levels that come in units of more or less. In life’s seeking and resisting behavior, there is the same intensity phenomenon that lies inside with various degrees of latency, but then jumps to overt behavior when either inertial need or external threat-harm rises to a certain level.
1. Note that while the ultimate cause may be God, it also may not be God. As Spencer observed, we don’t know and cannot know. Rather than staying agnostic on that question, Newton asserted that “the ultimate cause is God itself.”
2. Newton’s causes of motion are ambiguous. With gravity we know that large bodies attract and, thus, “accelerate” smaller bodies, thereby changing their speed or trajectory. What is not clear is whether this is the sole cause of movement at the cosmic scale. Newton suggests not for he says that the innate movement of bodies in the absence of an accelerating force is a straight line, which leaves open the question about what it is that causes the straight-line movement. If innate to matter, what is it that is innate? Here, Newton’s writing suggests that it is God’s design that bodies move thusly.
3. The passive and active principles interact, with passive being the ground, or equilibrium state, when pain is absent (needs have been met; no threats or harm exist). This might be a reason why defensive resistance - disturbance of an equilibrium state - is even more powerful than seeking to satisfy a need state: maintenance of what life has is a more powerful motive force than attempting to get what life does not yet have. Even so, stasis is only temporary before never-ending internal need or external dangers arise again.
In any discussion of gravity, the focus is on its attractive force, the literal meaning of gravity. What gets lost is an equally important Newtonian point that bodies of matter also move vis insita, an innate force of matter to preserve its present state, which is a latent force that becomes activated “when another body seeks to change its condition.” These are, respectively, active and passive principles. They are the Western versions of yang and yin (my characterization, not Newton’s). Gravity reaches out and seeks to bring the outside into itself. Inertia is the opposing force that says, “No, it wants to be left alone.” (2)
If one subscribes to the belief that life too is matter, albeit of a special sort, then it’s hard not to notice that it too operates by these same active and passive principles. The former becomes manifest when life brings the outward inside, primarily the importation of energy to counter entropy and sustain life and to make the connections necessary for reproduction. The difference with nonlife is intentionality. Life is teleological. Life is a needy, goal-seeking being to maintain and sustain itself. The passive principle lies latent as a force as long as life’s equilibrium needs are being met. When disturbed by other need-seeking beings or by environmental challenges, the passive principle comes alive and actively resists (repels) intrusion to maintain its equilibrium state. (3) From here, philosophers from the earliest days until now have tacked on the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Or, in Schopenhauer’s different formulation, we are moved outward by pain - to get what we need; to resist what we don’t want. When there’s success on both fronts, there is pleasure, which is Newton’s vis insita (inertial) state.
It is also reasonable to speculate about how these twin energetic principles of attraction and repulsion operate by the same units of intensity seen in Newton’s inverse square law. Attraction (and freedom from being attracted) depends on distance. But that is not a seamless continuum. It rather operates by units that become activated only when intensity is such that there are jumps in energetic levels that come in units of more or less. In life’s seeking and resisting behavior, there is the same intensity phenomenon that lies inside with various degrees of latency, but then jumps to overt behavior when either inertial need or external threat-harm rises to a certain level.
1. Note that while the ultimate cause may be God, it also may not be God. As Spencer observed, we don’t know and cannot know. Rather than staying agnostic on that question, Newton asserted that “the ultimate cause is God itself.”
2. Newton’s causes of motion are ambiguous. With gravity we know that large bodies attract and, thus, “accelerate” smaller bodies, thereby changing their speed or trajectory. What is not clear is whether this is the sole cause of movement at the cosmic scale. Newton suggests not for he says that the innate movement of bodies in the absence of an accelerating force is a straight line, which leaves open the question about what it is that causes the straight-line movement. If innate to matter, what is it that is innate? Here, Newton’s writing suggests that it is God’s design that bodies move thusly.
3. The passive and active principles interact, with passive being the ground, or equilibrium state, when pain is absent (needs have been met; no threats or harm exist). This might be a reason why defensive resistance - disturbance of an equilibrium state - is even more powerful than seeking to satisfy a need state: maintenance of what life has is a more powerful motive force than attempting to get what life does not yet have. Even so, stasis is only temporary before never-ending internal need or external dangers arise again.
July 16, 2018
Pretty good book, definitely an interesting style of thinking to at least be gleaned from reading it. Newton is by far one of the smartest people to ever have lived and in this book if he attempted to simplify or deconstruct his concepts and ideas they are still immensely difficult to comprehend for mere mortals. His insights and explanations of the world surrounding us are incredible and provide a new way of looking at everything in life and the idea of life itself.
February 18, 2014
Reading the mind of Isaac Newton
This book reflects on the mind and thought of Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists, through his writings. Principia and Opticks are the masterpieces of his accomplishments, but we get a glimpse of him through his letters to friends, fellow physicists, and philosophers of his time. The influence of Christian church in his thought is significant and found in numerous writings, which invokes God as the Supreme Being who gave us the laws of physics; the laws of motion, gravitation and geometry, to create the physical reality we experience. Albert Einstein also invoked God in many of his discussions, but Einstein thought God as an entity, but Newton's view of Christian God illustrates the influence of faith and belief on people of his time. In spite of this, many of his peers' interpreted Newtonian mechanics proves the independent nature of our world. The concept of absolute space, absolute time and absolute motion was criticized by theologians, including Bishop Berkeley and Leibniz, who regarded them as relative. But his newfound rationalism inspired many 18th century and future physicists that paved the way for more radical and newer way of scientific thinking that progressively diminished the impact of religious beliefs in scientific thought. Recently Stephen Hawking, a highly respected physicist of our time, stated that there is no God and no heaven. The truth of scientific enquiry is accepted by more people than ever before.
The first two chapters of this book discuss the principles of Newtonian dynamics and methods in philosophy. The third chapter is most interesting as it deals with physical reality. The influence of Newton's faith is clearly evident in his discussions, when he describes the solar system consisting of sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of one Intelligent and Powerful Being. He also implied that God kept stars at immense distance preventing them to fall on each other by their strong gravity. Gravity is also implied to play a role in keeping the sea and heavens. The subtle spirit is known pervade and lies hid in all gross bodies by the force and action of which spirit the particles of bodies attract one another at near distances and cohere, if contiguous; and electric bodies operate to greater distances as well as repelling as attracting the neighboring corpuscles. The vibrations of the spirit in the living bodies are suggested to propagate along the solid nerve filaments from muscles to the brain that make the animals move. In his letter to Richard Bentley, the Bishop of Worcester, Newton writes that "the power that is placed in sun in the center of six primary planets. Why there is one body in our system qualified to give light and heat to all the rest, I know no reason but because the Author of the system thought that it is convenient." In another part of the same letter, he states the geometrical arrangements and orbits of the planets around sun, "argues that cause to be not blind and fortuitous, but very well skilled in mechanics and geometry." In another letter, Newton ascribes the sun and planetary motions; "for this as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this system to an Intelligent Agent." In his letter to Thomas Burnett, Newton discusses the science of genesis and creationism, and when light may have been created in the six days of creation; Newton's arguments surrounds the physics of motion and gravity, which are thought to have been created by God.
In the fourth chapter, theory of light and colors, the most interesting part of this discussion is on "ether and gravity," which starts from page 112. Newton also had lengthy correspondence with another famous chemist of his time, Robert Boyle, which is also discussed in this book
This book does not get into the personal nature of Newton where many have commented on his mean and erratic behavior. He was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, and later appointed as a warden of the Royal Mint. Newton successfully prosecuted 28 counterfeiters, and sent one to gallows. He made himself a justice of the peace in all the counties, and then conducted more than 100 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers, and suspects as a prosecutor. Disguised as a habitué of bars and taverns, he gathered evidence himself. Newton's quarrel with Leibniz (another famous mathematician of his time), about atheism to the discovery of calculus, is very briefly discussed.
Newton's Principia is one of the most difficult books to read, even with the notation s modernized by author Florian Cajori in his 1928 book. Newton described physics so elliptically that most readers could not fill in the missing steps. Philosopher John Locke, who was not mathematically inclined, asked his mathematical friends if Newton's work is reliable before he took pains to read and understand the book. In light of this, it is a nice feeling to read this book, which is clearly described.
This book reflects on the mind and thought of Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists, through his writings. Principia and Opticks are the masterpieces of his accomplishments, but we get a glimpse of him through his letters to friends, fellow physicists, and philosophers of his time. The influence of Christian church in his thought is significant and found in numerous writings, which invokes God as the Supreme Being who gave us the laws of physics; the laws of motion, gravitation and geometry, to create the physical reality we experience. Albert Einstein also invoked God in many of his discussions, but Einstein thought God as an entity, but Newton's view of Christian God illustrates the influence of faith and belief on people of his time. In spite of this, many of his peers' interpreted Newtonian mechanics proves the independent nature of our world. The concept of absolute space, absolute time and absolute motion was criticized by theologians, including Bishop Berkeley and Leibniz, who regarded them as relative. But his newfound rationalism inspired many 18th century and future physicists that paved the way for more radical and newer way of scientific thinking that progressively diminished the impact of religious beliefs in scientific thought. Recently Stephen Hawking, a highly respected physicist of our time, stated that there is no God and no heaven. The truth of scientific enquiry is accepted by more people than ever before.
The first two chapters of this book discuss the principles of Newtonian dynamics and methods in philosophy. The third chapter is most interesting as it deals with physical reality. The influence of Newton's faith is clearly evident in his discussions, when he describes the solar system consisting of sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of one Intelligent and Powerful Being. He also implied that God kept stars at immense distance preventing them to fall on each other by their strong gravity. Gravity is also implied to play a role in keeping the sea and heavens. The subtle spirit is known pervade and lies hid in all gross bodies by the force and action of which spirit the particles of bodies attract one another at near distances and cohere, if contiguous; and electric bodies operate to greater distances as well as repelling as attracting the neighboring corpuscles. The vibrations of the spirit in the living bodies are suggested to propagate along the solid nerve filaments from muscles to the brain that make the animals move. In his letter to Richard Bentley, the Bishop of Worcester, Newton writes that "the power that is placed in sun in the center of six primary planets. Why there is one body in our system qualified to give light and heat to all the rest, I know no reason but because the Author of the system thought that it is convenient." In another part of the same letter, he states the geometrical arrangements and orbits of the planets around sun, "argues that cause to be not blind and fortuitous, but very well skilled in mechanics and geometry." In another letter, Newton ascribes the sun and planetary motions; "for this as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this system to an Intelligent Agent." In his letter to Thomas Burnett, Newton discusses the science of genesis and creationism, and when light may have been created in the six days of creation; Newton's arguments surrounds the physics of motion and gravity, which are thought to have been created by God.
In the fourth chapter, theory of light and colors, the most interesting part of this discussion is on "ether and gravity," which starts from page 112. Newton also had lengthy correspondence with another famous chemist of his time, Robert Boyle, which is also discussed in this book
This book does not get into the personal nature of Newton where many have commented on his mean and erratic behavior. He was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, and later appointed as a warden of the Royal Mint. Newton successfully prosecuted 28 counterfeiters, and sent one to gallows. He made himself a justice of the peace in all the counties, and then conducted more than 100 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers, and suspects as a prosecutor. Disguised as a habitué of bars and taverns, he gathered evidence himself. Newton's quarrel with Leibniz (another famous mathematician of his time), about atheism to the discovery of calculus, is very briefly discussed.
Newton's Principia is one of the most difficult books to read, even with the notation s modernized by author Florian Cajori in his 1928 book. Newton described physics so elliptically that most readers could not fill in the missing steps. Philosopher John Locke, who was not mathematically inclined, asked his mathematical friends if Newton's work is reliable before he took pains to read and understand the book. In light of this, it is a nice feeling to read this book, which is clearly described.
September 18, 2012
An intriguing selection from Newton's own writings. Gives a nice overview of his ideas without too much of the math.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews