Certain Philosophical Questions: Newton's Trinity Notebook

by J. E. McGuire , Martin Tamny

• ISBN13: 9780521530668
• ISBN10: 0521530660
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Isaac Newton wrote the manuscript Questiones quaedam philosophicae at the very beginning of his scientific career. This small notebook thus affords rare insight into the beginnings of Newton's thought and the foundations of his subsequent intellectual development. The Questiones contains a series of entries in Newton's hand that range over many topics in science, philosophy, psychology, theology, and the foundations of mathematics. These notes, written in English, provide a very detailed picture of Newton's early interests, and record his critical appraisal of contemporary issues in natural philosophy. Written predominantly in 1664-5, they give a significant perspective on Newton's thought just prior to his annus mirabilis, 1666. This volume provides a complete transcription of the Questiones, together with an 'expansion' into modern English, and a full editorial commentary on the content and significance of the notebook in the development of Newton's thought. It will be essential reading for all those interested in Newton and the intellectual foundations of science.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
PART I. COMMENTARY
Introduction	3	(1)
Description of the manuscript	3	(2)
Chronology of the Questiones	5	(9)
Newton's reading in earlier traditions and some principal sources of the Questiones	14	(12)
The Greek and Latin notes	15	(5)
Some principal sources of the Questiones	20	(6)
Infinity, indivisibilism, and the void	26	(101)
The debt to Charleton	26	(17)
Least distance and the vacuum	43	(6)
Finite quantity and infinite divisibility: an Epicurean argument	49	(11)
Extension, indivisible quantity, and the metric of least distance	60	(18)
Indivisibles of time and motion	78	(13)
Mathematics and indivisibilism	91	(22)
The structure of the universe: infinity and the void	113	(14)
The Cartesian influence	127	(68)
Newton's introduction to Descartes's epistemology and ontology	128	(14)
Newton's reading in Descartes's Principia	142	(33)
Newton's response to Descartes's tidal theory and the Meterology	175	(20)
Newton on projectile motion and the void	195	(21)
Newton's main argument against antiperistasis	196	(6)
Newton's arguments against the theory of impetus	202	(7)
Newton's arguments for natural gravity	209	(7)
Physiology and Hobbesian epistemology	216	(25)
The physicalist program	216	(3)
The Hobbesian influence	219	(2)
Newton's physiological investigations	221	(20)
The origin of Newton's optical thought and its connection with physiology	241	(34)
Some optical observations	242	(4)
The boundary-color phenomenon and the causes of color	246	(16)
Newton's notes from Boyle and a third essay ``Of Colours''	262	(10)
Newton on the ring phenomenon and the influence of Hooke	272	(3)
Gravitation, attraction, and cohesion	275	(21)
A mechanical theory of gravitation of the Questiones	275	(10)
Some later effluxial theories	285	(7)
Cohesion and adhesion	292	(4)
Astronomy	296	(14)
The cometary notes	296	(8)
Miscellaneous astronomical notes	304	(6)
Things and souls	310	(156)
Things	310	(5)
Souls	315	(2)
Conclusion	317	(149)
PART II. TRANSCRIPTION AND EXPANSION OF QUESTIONES QUAEDAM PHILOSOPHICAE
Principles of the Transcription and Expansion	329	(1)
The Transcription and Expansion	330	(136)
Appendix. ULC. Add. 3975, Folios 1--22	466	(24)
Glossary	490	(10)
Symbols and shorthand devices	500	(4)
Selected bibliography	504	(7)
Index	511