Newton and Spinoza

Abstract

WITH regard to the new biography of Isaac Newton by Prof. More and to the review in NATURE of January 5 (p. 3), the following considerations may be of interest. Brought up in a family devoted to the Royalist cause, Newton became a staunch Whig. As a fellow of Trinity College he is said to have been influenced by the Platonists, but in spite of this, Newton became a man of science who is far from Henry More's mystical Paracelsic ideas. We must ask how this astonishing development took place, even if we suppose that Newton's genius was essentially responsible for it. I believe that no biographer has yet pointed out the possibility of Spinoza's views having influenced Newton, for this great Dutch-Jewish philosopher was the only one among the philosophers of the seventeenth century who may be ranked with Newton. Oldenburg, secretary to the Royal Society, visited Spinoza at his residence at Rhynsburg in 1661 and was in correspondence with him from 1661 until 1665 and afterwards, 16757ndash;76, concerning scientific, philosophical and theological problems. It is known that Boyle was interested in Spinoza's view, and it is most probable that Newton too had some knowledge of Spinoza and his works. The “Theological-Political Treatise” (1670) greatly influenced English metaphysicians, for example, Locke. It might have influenced Newton's political and theological views as well.