Abstract

THE aim of this paper is to examine the reaction of an Aristotelian and a Cartesian to Newton’s 1672 paper on light and colors. The Aristotelian is Francis Hall, an English Jesuit who held the position of professor of mathematics in the Jesuit college at Liège. In his own time he was better known by his pseudonym Francis Line or Linus. The Cartesian is Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society of London since its official beginning in 1662. It is not my purpose to pass judgment on Newton’s theory itself or to analyze his replies. Rather it is to investigate the ways in which two intellectual attitudes, representing two different carry-over philosophical orientations, approached the same problem. I shall set out Newton’s main thesis, the criticisms directed against it by Hooke and Linus and then evaluate the merits and demerits of each approach.