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Article ID: CBB001320795

Causal Language and the Structure of Force in Newton's System of the World (2013)

Kochiras, Hylarie (Author)

HOPOS
Volume: 3
Pages: 210--235
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

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Physics Rhetoric in scientific discourse Mathematical physics Gravitation Forces 18th century 17th century Great Britain Newton, Isaac

Although Newton carefully eschews questions about gravity's causal basis in the published Principia, the original version of his masterwork's third book contains some intriguing causal language. These forces, he writes, arise from the universal nature of matter. Such remarks seem to assert knowledge of gravity's cause, even that matter is capable of robust and distant action. Some commentators defend that interpretation of the text---a text whose proper interpretation is important since Newton's reasons for suppressing it strongly suggest that he continued to endorse its ideas. This article argues that the surface appearance of Newton's causal language is deceptive. What does Newton intend with his causal language if not a full causal hypothesis? His remarks actually indicate a way of considering the force mathematically, something he contrasts to the structure of the force as it really is in nature. In explaining that, he identifies a significant disjunction between the physical force itself and mathematical ways of considering it, and the text's significance lies in its view of the force's structure and in the questions raised about the relationship between mathematical representations and the physical world.

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