Quaestiones quaedam philosophicae
Encyclopedia
Quaestiones quaedam philosophicae (Certain philosophical questions) is the name given to a set of notes that Isaac Newton
kept for himself during his early years in Cambridge. They concern questions in the natural philosophy
of the day that interested him. Apart from the light it throws on the formation of his own agenda for research, the major interest in these notes is the documentation of the unaided development of the scientific method in the mind of Newton, whereby every question is put to experimental test.
notebook, currently in the Cambridge University Library
, was Newton's basic notebook in which he set down in 1661 his readings in the required curriculum in Cambridge and his later readings in mechanical philosophy. He entered notes from both ends. The initial notes, in Greek, were on Aristotle
's logic at one end and his ethics, at the other. Newton also made notes on the required book Regulae Philosophicae by Daniel Stahl which laid out Aristotelean philosophy in the form of dialogues, with objections and refutations in the style of modern day FAQs. Later he added notes on Rhetorices contractae by Gerard Vossius.
The first signs of Newton's own developing interests are in his notes on Physiologiae peripateticae, by the 17th century philosopher Johannes Magirus
. His notes on the exposition of Aristotelean cosmology shows the first signs of independent thought, in that Newton departed from the order of presentation in the book by collecting together the periods of the celestial spheres. He was impressed enough by the argument that light is non-corporeal (otherwise the sun would be exhausted) to make note of it. He continued with a reading on the phenomenon of the rainbow. But following this he drew a line across the page, below which appears his first notes on the new natural philosophy of his day— a compendium of limits on the radii of stars as determined by Galileo
and Auzout
. At the other end of the book, he interrupted his notes on Aristotle with two pages of notes on Descartes
' metaphysics.
Following this, the central approximately hundred pages of this notebook is entitled Questiones quadem Philosophcae [sic], and a later motto over the title Amicus Plato amicus Aristotle magis amica veritas (Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth).
, Walter Charlton's translation of Gassendi
into English, Galileo
's Dialogue
, Robert Boyle
, Thomas Hobbes
, Kenelm Digby
, Joseph Glanvill
and Henry More
, and others. These were set down under 45 section headings which he used to organize his readings. They began with the nature of matter, place, time and motion and went on to the organization of the universe. This was followed by what would be classed today as properties of condensed matter, for example, rarity, fluidity, hardness etc. These were followed by questions on violent motion, light, colour, vision, and other sensations. The last part contains miscelleneous topics which presumably occurred to him later during his readings: "Of God", "Of ye Creation", "Of ye soule" and "Of Sleepe and Dreams &c". Some headings were followed by vast entries, which had to be continued elsewhere; others were blank. The earlier essays were organized into questions and outlines of possible experiments which roughly fit into modern notions of science, not the broader ancient notion of philosophy.
Elsewhere, in his notes on Kepler's laws of planetary motion
that he read about in the book Astronomiae carolina by Thomas Streete, he reached the conclusion that gravity must not merely act on the surfaces of bodies but on their interiors.
, on the contrary, held that light is a stream of tiny particles travelling with immense speed. Newton questioned Descartes' theory in many ways; in folio 103 he wrote—
's theory of colour, including his idea that it is a wave. Newton dismisses this theory with the remark that then light should bend around edges of objects as sounds does.
gained by reading Charleton
's Physiologia. He argued against continua and asserted the need for atoms. His acceptance of the corpuscular theory of light may have been affected by this.
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
kept for himself during his early years in Cambridge. They concern questions in the natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
of the day that interested him. Apart from the light it throws on the formation of his own agenda for research, the major interest in these notes is the documentation of the unaided development of the scientific method in the mind of Newton, whereby every question is put to experimental test.
Additional information
This octavoOctavo (book)
Octavo is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multiple pages of text were printed to form the individual sections of a book...
notebook, currently in the Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library
The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...
, was Newton's basic notebook in which he set down in 1661 his readings in the required curriculum in Cambridge and his later readings in mechanical philosophy. He entered notes from both ends. The initial notes, in Greek, were on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's logic at one end and his ethics, at the other. Newton also made notes on the required book Regulae Philosophicae by Daniel Stahl which laid out Aristotelean philosophy in the form of dialogues, with objections and refutations in the style of modern day FAQs. Later he added notes on Rhetorices contractae by Gerard Vossius.
The first signs of Newton's own developing interests are in his notes on Physiologiae peripateticae, by the 17th century philosopher Johannes Magirus
Johannes Magirus
-Life:He was born at Fritzlar about 1560; his background was Lutheran. He studied at the University of Padua, and took a medical degree at the University of Marburg in 1585.-Works:...
. His notes on the exposition of Aristotelean cosmology shows the first signs of independent thought, in that Newton departed from the order of presentation in the book by collecting together the periods of the celestial spheres. He was impressed enough by the argument that light is non-corporeal (otherwise the sun would be exhausted) to make note of it. He continued with a reading on the phenomenon of the rainbow. But following this he drew a line across the page, below which appears his first notes on the new natural philosophy of his day— a compendium of limits on the radii of stars as determined by Galileo
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
and Auzout
Adrien Auzout
Adrien Auzout was a French astronomer.He was born in Rouen, France, the son of a clerk in the court of Rouen. His educational background is unknown. In 1664–1665 he made observations of comets, and argued in favor of their following elliptical or parabolic orbits...
. At the other end of the book, he interrupted his notes on Aristotle with two pages of notes on Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
' metaphysics.
Following this, the central approximately hundred pages of this notebook is entitled Questiones quadem Philosophcae [sic], and a later motto over the title Amicus Plato amicus Aristotle magis amica veritas (Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth).
Dating
The start of Quaestiones is definitely after July 8, 1661, the date on which Newton arrived in Trinity College. It is also definitely before December 9, 1664, on which day (and the following) he made notes of his observations of a comet. Other datings of the first entries are based on his handwriting— which changed drastically between the early notes of 1661 and later notes which can be dated independently to 1665. The transitional handwriting which characterizes the early parts of Quaestiones can only be independently dated to roughly 1664. It is interesting that this was written during a period when Newton was actively developing the notion of calculus, but mathematics made no real appearance in this notebook.Contents
The Quaestiones contains notes from Newton's thorough reading of DescartesRené Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, Walter Charlton's translation of Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. With a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the...
into English, Galileo
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
's Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
, Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...
, Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
, Kenelm Digby
Kenelm Digby
Sir Kenelm Digby was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Blackloist. For his versatility, Anthony à Wood called him the "magazine of all arts".-Early life and career:He was born at Gayhurst,...
, Joseph Glanvill
Joseph Glanvill
Joseph Glanvill was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. Not himself a scientist, he has been called "the most skillful apologist of the virtuosi", or in other words the leading propagandist for the approach of the English natural philosophers of the later 17th century.-Life:He was...
and Henry More
Henry More
Henry More FRS was an English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school.-Biography:Henry was born at Grantham and was schooled at The King's School, Grantham and at Eton College...
, and others. These were set down under 45 section headings which he used to organize his readings. They began with the nature of matter, place, time and motion and went on to the organization of the universe. This was followed by what would be classed today as properties of condensed matter, for example, rarity, fluidity, hardness etc. These were followed by questions on violent motion, light, colour, vision, and other sensations. The last part contains miscelleneous topics which presumably occurred to him later during his readings: "Of God", "Of ye Creation", "Of ye soule" and "Of Sleepe and Dreams &c". Some headings were followed by vast entries, which had to be continued elsewhere; others were blank. The earlier essays were organized into questions and outlines of possible experiments which roughly fit into modern notions of science, not the broader ancient notion of philosophy.
Gravity
The topic of gravity was not dealt with in a single section, showing that his understanding of the matter was still far from well developed. In a section on perpetual motion machines (folio 121) he wrote
Whither ye rays of gravity may bee stopped by reflecting or refracting ym, if so a perpetuall motion may bee made one of these ways.
Elsewhere, in his notes on Kepler's laws of planetary motion
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
In astronomy, Kepler's laws give a description of the motion of planets around the Sun.Kepler's laws are:#The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci....
that he read about in the book Astronomiae carolina by Thomas Streete, he reached the conclusion that gravity must not merely act on the surfaces of bodies but on their interiors.
On violent motion
In Aristotlean physics bodies are subject to either natural motion, such as when a heavy body falls, or violent motion such as when a heavy body is thrown up. Although this essay was written following his reading of Descartes and Galileo, by its title it shows that Newton did not reject pre-Galilean mechanics tout court.Nature of light
Descartes believed that he was the first to obtain the law of refraction of light, and paid great attention to it as well as to the well-known classical law of reflection. Descartes hypothesized that light is pressure, transmitted instantaneously through a transparent medium. GassendiPierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. With a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the...
, on the contrary, held that light is a stream of tiny particles travelling with immense speed. Newton questioned Descartes' theory in many ways; in folio 103 he wrote—
Light cannot be pression &c for yn wee should see in the night as wel or better yn in ye day we should se a bright light above us because we are pressed downwards ... there could be no refraction since ye same matter cannot presse 2 ways. a little body interposed could not hinder us from seeing pression could not render shapes so distinct. ye sun could not be quite eclipsed ye Moone & planetts would shine like sunns. When a fire or candle is extinguish we lookeing another way should see a light.
Nature of colour
The then current theory of colour held that white light was elementary, and that colours arose from mixtures of light and dark. Newton criticised this theory by noting that in that case a printed page, with its juxtaposition of light and dark, would look coloured. In folio 122 he recorded for the first time his notion that white light is heterogeneous and colour arise, not through the modification of a homogeneous white light, but from the separation of this mixture into its components. Newton also mentions HookeRobert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
's theory of colour, including his idea that it is a wave. Newton dismisses this theory with the remark that then light should bend around edges of objects as sounds does.
Of atoms
Newton seems to have come across the notion of atomism through his knowledge of GassendiPierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. With a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the...
gained by reading Charleton
Walter Charleton
Walter Charleton was an English writer. According to Jon Parkin, he was "the main conduit for the transmission of Epicurean ideas to England".-Life:...
's Physiologia. He argued against continua and asserted the need for atoms. His acceptance of the corpuscular theory of light may have been affected by this.
See also
- Aristotelian physicsAristotelian physicsAristotelian Physics the natural sciences, are described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle . In the Physics, Aristotle established general principles of change that govern all natural bodies; both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial—including all motion, change in respect...
, GalileoGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
and DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day... - Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia MathematicaPhilosophiae Naturalis Principia MathematicaPhilosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Latin for "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", often referred to as simply the Principia, is a work in three books by Sir Isaac Newton, first published 5 July 1687. Newton also published two further editions, in 1713 and 1726...
and OpticksOpticksOpticks is a book written by English physicist Isaac Newton that was released to the public in 1704. It is about optics and the refraction of light, and is considered one of the great works of science in history...