Newton’s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy

Abstract

Preamble.- Newton, the Man - Again.- I: Newton's Science.- Newton's Third Law and Universal Gravity.- Newton's Alchemy and his 'Active Principle' of Gravitation.- Newton's Biblical Theology and his Theological Physics.- Newton's 'Opticks' and the Incomplete Revolution.- Newton's Pendulum Experiment and specific Characteristics of his Scientific Method in Physics.- II: Newton's Scientific Heritage.- The Surprises of Newtonian Determinism.- Newton's Conception of Time in Modern Physics and Philosophy.- Gravitation and Nineteenth-Century Physical Worldviews.- Electricity in Eighteenth-Century Holland: a Newtonian Legacy.- Reconcilation of the Newtonian Framework with Thermodynamics by the Reproducibility of a Collective Physical Quantity.- Newtonian Gravitational Theory and General Relativity in the Light of the Correspondence between their Mathematical Models.- Chemical Affinity in the 19th Century and Newtonianism.- III: Newton's Methodological Heritage.- Newton, Lavoisier and Modern Science.- Inertia, the Innate Force of Matter: a Legacy from Newton to Modern Physics.- A Charactarization of the Newtonian Paradigm.- Newton's Mathematization of Physics in Retrospect.- Probability, Planets, and Newton's Methodology.- Isaac Newton's Legacy: an Insight into Resilient Patterns of Thought.- Newton's Construction of the Law of Gravitation.- IV: Newton's Philosophical Heritage.- Partnership in Glory: Newton and Locke through the Enlightenment and beyond.- What Survives from the Classical Concept of Absolute Time.- Newton's Theory of Matter.- Ethics, Politics and Sociology as Newtonian Sciences.- Aristotle Wittgenstein, alias Isaac Newton between Fact and Substance.- A Word About the Authors.