Locke’s Newtonianism and Lockean Newtonianism

Perspectives on Science 5 (3):285-310 (1997)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I explore Locke’s complex attitude toward the natural philosophy of his day by focusing on Locke’s own treatment of Newton’s theory of gravity and the presence of Lockean themes in defenses of Newtonian attraction/gravity by Maupertuis and other early Newtonians. In doing so, I highlight the inadequacy of an unqualified labeling of Locke as “mechanist” or “Newtonian.”

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1162/posc_a_00529

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Hume's newtonianism and anti-newtonianism.Eric Schliesser - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed.Patricia Sheridan - 2010 - Continuum.
Locke on human understanding: selected essays.I. C. Tipton (ed.) - 1977 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Locke's ontology.Lisa Downing - 2007 - In Lex Newman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding". Cambridge University Press.
The self-fashioning of French Newtonianism: J. B. Shank: The Newton Wars and the beginning of the French Enlightenment. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2008, xv+571pp, $55.00 HB.Charles T. Wolfe & David Gilad - 2011 - Metascience 20 (3):573-576.
John Locke: champion of modern democracy.Graham Faiella - 2006 - New York, N.Y.: Rosen Pub. Group.
The uses of mechanism: Corpuscularianism in drafts a and B of Locke's essay.Lisa Downing - 2001 - In William Newman, John Murdoch & Cristoph Lüthy (eds.), Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscularian Matter Theory. E.J. Brill. pp. 515-534.
Dividing Locke from God.John William Tate - 2013 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 39 (2):133-164.
Primary and Secondary Qualities.Robert A. Wilson - 2016 - In Matthew Stuart (ed.), A Companion to Locke. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Blackwell. pp. 193-211.
Are corpuscles unobservable in principle for Locke?Lisa Jeanne Downing - 1992 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 30 (1):33-52.
Locke : the primary and secondary quality distinction.Lisa Downing - 2009 - In Robin Le Poidevin, Simons Peter, McGonigal Andrew & Ross P. Cameron (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics. New York: Routledge.
Living Force at Leiden: De Volder, 's Gravesande and the Reception of Newtonianism.Tammy Nyden - 2014 - In Zvi Biener Eric Schliesser (ed.), Newton and Empiricism. Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-10-31

Downloads
1,285 (#8,688)

6 months
214 (#11,122)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Lisa Downing
Ohio State University

Citations of this work

Three concepts of causation in Newton.Andrew Janiak - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3):396-407.
Locke’s Metaphysics and Newtonian Metaphysics.Lisa Downing - 2014 - In Zvi Biener & Eric Schliesser (eds.), Newton and Empiricism. Oxford University Press. pp. 97-118.
Newton's Principia.Chris Smeenk & Eric Schliesser - 2013 - In Jed Z. Buchwald & Robert Fox (eds.), The Oxford handbook of the history of physics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 109-165.

View all 7 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.John Locke - 1979 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 169 (2):221-222.
Locke: Ontology.Michael Ayers - 1991 - New York: Routledge.
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton.Isaac Newton & H. W. Turnbull - 1961 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 12 (47):255-258.

View all 27 references / Add more references