Newtonian Studies

By far the most extensive essay in the collection, “Newton and Descartes,” is based upon a Horblit Lecture on the history of science delivered at Harvard University. Containing a great deal of additional material beyond what was presented in the original lecture, it explores in detail important ramifications of Newton’s rejection of the Cartesian relativistic definition of motion. In it the author explicates a previously unknown manuscript, written by Newton around 1670, which states his views on the equilibrium of fluids and of bodies in fluids. The other essays analyze a range of topics, from why Newton accepted one definition of “hypothesis” as “a plausible though not probable conception, while rejecting the Cartesian “false hypothesis,” to how he established that the motion of planets confirms the presence of God.