Introduction
Isaac Newton is one of the few figures in the history of science and philosophy whose fame reaches popular culture. And justly so, Newton’s contributions to mathematics, mechanics, and the study of light changed the ways the sciences of his time were practiced. More importantly, those contributions embodied a philosophy of science and vision of scientific methodology that was at once clearly successful and controversial. Eighteenth-century attempts to extend Newton’s approach to natural knowledge resulted in overlap** schools of thought that can broadly be described as “Newtonianisms.” Attempts to critique Newton’s approach were just as influential, resulting in a variety of “Anti-Newtonianisms.” Whether they argued for or against him, scientists, philosophers, and physicians (particularly Scottish physicians) of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw Newton and his thought as objects with which they must engage, both in substance (vis-à-vis the...
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Biener, Z. (2021). Newtonianism: An Introduction. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_516-1
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