NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY, the doctrine of the universe, and particularly of the heavenly bodies, their laws, affections, &c., as delivered by Sir Isaac Newton.
The term Newtonian Philosophy is applied very differently. Some authors under this denomination include all the corpuscular philosophy, considered as it now stands corrected and reformed by the discoveries and improvements made in several parts of it by Sir Isaac Newton. In this sense it is that Gravesande calls his elements of physics Introductio ad Philosophiam Newtonianam; and in this sense the Newtonian is the same with the new philosophy, standing contradistinguished from the Cartesian, the Peri-
1 See Memoirs of Newton, &c., 1855, vol. ii., App., pp. 540-546.
2 These papers have been more recently entrusted to Sir David Brewster, who has published the most important of them, in 1855, in the Memoirs of Newton above referred to.
3 This volume was not published. The whole impression, which was small, was distributed in presents to scientific institutions, public libraries, and individuals interested in the subjects to which it relates.
patetic, and the ancient corpuscular system. By Newtonian philosophy others mean the method or order which Sir Isaac Newton observes in philosophizing, viz., the reasoning and drawing of conclusions directly from phenomena, exclusive of all previous hypotheses; the beginning from simple principles, deducing the first powers and laws of nature from a few select phenomena, and then applying those laws, &c., to account for other things. And in this sense the Newtonian philosophy is the same with the experimental or inductive philosophy, and stands opposed to the ancient corpuscular system. By this philosophy some understand that particular kind in which physical bodies are considered mathematically, and where geometry and mechanics are applied to the solution of the appearances of nature. In this sense the Newtonian is the same with the mechanical and mathematical philosophy. Others, again, by Newtonian philosophy, understand that part of physical knowledge which Sir Isaac Newton has handled, improved, and demonstrated in his Principia. Lastly, by it is meant the new principles which Sir Isaac Newton has brought into philosophy, the new system founded thereon, and the new solutions of phenomena thence deduced, or that which characterizes and distinguishes his philosophy from all others; and this is the sense in which it ought to be used. (See the articles ASTRONOMY, ATTRACTION, DYNAMICS, OPTICS; Professor Playfair's Dissertation, part ii., sect ii.; and Sir John Leslie's Dissertation, sect. vii.)