Cotes’ Queries: Newton’s Empiricism and Conceptions of Matter

In Eric Schliesser & Andrew Janiak (eds.), Interpreting Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 105-137 (2012)
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Abstract

We argue that a conflict between two conceptions of “quantity of matter” employed in a corollary to proposition 6 of Book III of the Principia illustrates a deeper conflict between Newton’s view of the nature of extended bodies and the concept of mass appropriate for the theoretical framework of the Principia. We trace Newton’s failure to recognize the conflict to the fact that he allowed for the justification of natural philosophical claims by two types of a posteriori, empiricist methodologies. Newton's thoughts on these methodologies demonstrate that his natural philosophy continued to develop after the publication of the first edition of Principia and that De Grav should be understood as an early, and not necessarily representative, text.

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Author Profiles

Zvi Biener
University of Cincinnati
Chris Smeenk
University of Western Ontario

Citations of this work

On reading Newton as an Epicurean: Kant, Spinozism and the changes to the Principia.Eric Schliesser - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3):416-428.
Newton and Spinoza: On motion and matter (and God, of course).Eric Schliesser - 2012 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3):436-458.
Gravity’s cause and substance counting: contextualizing the problems.Hylarie Kochiras - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (1):167-184.
Gravity’s cause and substance counting: contextualizing the problems.Hylarie Kochiras - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (1):167-184.

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References found in this work

Critique of Pure Reason.Immanuel Kant - 1998 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kant and the Exact Sciences.Michael Friedman - 1990 - Harvard University Press.
Newtonian space-time.Howard Stein - 1967 - Texas Quarterly 10 (3):174--200.
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence.H. G. Alexander - 1956 - Philosophy 32 (123):365-366.
Kant and the Exact Sciences.William Harper & Michael Friedman - 1995 - Philosophical Review 104 (4):587.

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