After Newton

Abstract

Newton’s scientific and philosophical legacy laid the foundation of a tradition in natural philosophy that became the most accepted way of exploring the universe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This wide acceptance of Newtonianism, however, did not mean that all parts of Newton’s philosophy were clearly comprehended, rather there were enough ambiguities and inconsistencies in his works to cause the emergence of different schools or traditions of Newtonian philosophy. During Newton’s lifetime and after his death, many publications in physics, astronomy, and philosophy appeared with subtitles such as “demonstrated upon the mathematical principles of Sir Isaac Newton,” or “deduced from Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy,” in which the authors attempted to interpret natural phenomena according to their understandings of Newton’s works. Based on various approaches to interpret the “Newtonian Philosophy,” as I. B. Cohen classified them, five different meanings of Newtonianism appeared among the followers of Newton.