Newton as Philosopher

Andrew Janiak presents Newton as an original and sophisticated contributor to natural philosophy.

Andrew Janiak (Author)

9780521862868, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 July 2008

210 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.47 kg

'… fulfils the task successfully, and proves the good that can come from combining a historically accurate account with a philosophically compelling analysis … Janiak masterfully steers his interpretive analysis through an extraordinarily rich historical material, while the philosophically rigorous narrative takes the reader from one chapter to the next in a compelling way. The final result is a brilliant book that has an important story to tell about Newton's "physical metaphysics" and it makes it an occasion for a thousand wider meditations … Janiak's Newton sheds new light on the vexed issue of the relationship between Newton's physics and his metaphysical and religious beliefs, and on how the latter informed and illuminated the former … Janiak's monograph offers an essential contribution to the ever-growing field of history and philosophy of science, and proves once more what can be achieved by masterfully integrating intellectual history of science with philosophy.' The Journal of Philosophy

Newton's philosophical views are unique and uniquely difficult to categorise. In the course of a long career from the early 1670s until his death in 1727, he articulated profound responses to Cartesian natural philosophy and to the prevailing mechanical philosophy of his day. Newton as Philosopher presents Newton as an original and sophisticated contributor to natural philosophy, one who engaged with the principal ideas of his most important predecessor, René Descartes, and of his most influential critic, G. W. Leibniz. Unlike Descartes and Leibniz, Newton was systematic and philosophical without presenting a philosophical system, but over the course of his life, he developed a novel picture of nature, our place within it, and its relation to the creator. This rich treatment of his philosophical ideas will be of wide interest to historians of philosophy, science, and ideas.

Preface
Notes on text and translations
1. Newton as philosopher, the very idea
2. Physics and metaphysics: three interpretations
3. Do forces exist? Contesting the mechanical philosophy, I
4. Matter and mechanism: contesting the mechanical philosophy, II
5. Space in physics and metaphysics: contra Descartes
6. God and natural philosophy
Bibliography
index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Philosophy of science [PDA], History of Western philosophy [HPC]