Renaissance/Early Modern
Isaac Newton
1642–1727
“to derive two or three general Principles of Motion from Phænomena ... would be a very great step in Philosophy, though the Causes of those Principles were not yet discover'd.”
Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and natural philosopher at Cambridge, later Master of the Mint and president of the Royal Society. The states the laws of motion and universal gravitation as propositions drawn from phenomena; the does the same for light and color by experiment and demonstration. He refused hypotheses that outrun experiment. Relations among measurable quantities are what he claimed to know. For a century and more, experimental philosophy meant what he had done.
In the Conversation
13 of the Great Ideas
Theology & Metaphysics
Metaphysics
Change
A body in motion continues in motion; change of motion requires an impressed force.
Space
Absolute space exists independently of bodies; it is the infinite, immovable container in which all motion occurs.
World
The world is governed by universal mathematical laws, but the order of the system points to the design of an intelligent Creator.
Eternity & Infinity
Logic & Method
Induction
In experimental philosophy, propositions are to be gathered from phenomena by induction and made general only as far as the phenomena warrant; I frame no hypotheses.
Science
Science proceeds by gathering propositions from phenomena by induction; hypotheses about hidden causes that go beyond what observation warrants have no place in experimental philosophy.
Natural Science
Astronomy
Universal gravitation unifies celestial and terrestrial mechanics; the same force that drops an apple curves the moon's orbit.
Mechanics
Three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation account for all mechanical phenomena, from falling apples to planetary orbits.
Physics
Physics proceeds by gathering propositions from phenomena through induction; its principles are mathematical, its test is experiment, and hypotheses about hidden causes have no place in it.