Overview
- Contains many previously unpublished transcriptions from Newton's private manuscripts
- Thoroughly based on a careful study of Newton's manuscripts
- A combination of detailed historical research cum philosophical-systematic explication of Newton's methodology. Therefore, it will attract historians and philosophers of science.
Part of the book series: Archimedes (ARIM, volume 29)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Newton’s Causal Methodology
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Newton’s Methodology: “The Best Way of Arguing in Natural Philosophy”
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Newton’s Theology
Keywords
About this book
In this monograph, Steffen Ducheyne provides a historically detailed and systematically rich explication of Newton’s methodology. Throughout the pages of this book, it will be shown that Newton developed a complex natural-philosophical methodology which encompasses procedures to minimize inductive risk during the process of theory formation and which, thereby, surpasses a standard hypothetico-deductive methodological setting. Accordingly, it will be highlighted that the so-called ‘Newtonian Revolution’ was not restricted to the empirical and theoretical dimensions of science, but applied equally to the methodological dimension of science. Furthermore, it will be documented that Newton’s methodology was far from static and that it developed alongside with his scientific work. Attention will be paid not only to the successes of Newton’s innovative methodology, but equally to its tensions and limitations. Based on a thorough study of Newton’s extant manuscripts, this monograph will address and contextualize, inter alia, Newton’s causal realism, his views on action at a distance and space and time, the status of efficient causation in the /Principia/, the different phases of his methodology, his treatment of force and the constituents of the physico-mathematical models in the context of Book I of the /Principia/, the analytic part of the argument for universal gravitation, the meaning and significance of his regulae philosophandi, the methodological differences between his mechanical and optical work, and, finally, the interplay between Newton’s theology and his natural philosophy.
Reviews
From the reviews:
“This new study by Steffen Ducheyne … focuses more on Newton’s natural philosophy. This marks a further advance of our understanding of this important subject, and Ducheyne is to be congratulated for discovering something new, and important, to say about a figure whose work has generated a veritable scholarly industry. … this is a major and important contribution to this field.” (John Henry, Science & Education, May, 2012)
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: “The main Business of natural Philosophy”
Book Subtitle: Isaac Newton’s Natural-Philosophical Methodology
Authors: Steffen Ducheyne
Series Title: Archimedes
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2126-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Netherlands 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-2125-8Published: 20 October 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3721-1Published: 29 November 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-2126-5Published: 20 October 2011
Series ISSN: 1385-0180
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0064
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVI, 354
Topics: History, general, Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics