HPS211H1 Lecture Notes - Newtonianism
Document Summary
As a matter of method, stick to the simple stuff that is useful. Was committed to determinism: substantial part of his framework, this was something that had to be presumed to get any work done. Newton also had an understanding of space as a container. He figured that space could be nothing, background principle that he assumes to do the kind of work that he wants. Came up with system for understanding all matter and motion. Planet"s orbited in ellipses not perfectly circular orbits (discovered by kepler) Newton expanded on keplers results and explained them. People thought that newton had kind of just solved everything. In advocating for his system it was not uncommon for people to claim that more had been done than had actually been done. Newton"s supporters made efforts to extend newton"s concepts to new phenomena to extend the understanding of the world as far as possible. Newton became kind of the new paradigm since aristotle.