Isaac Newton
A physicist and mathematician who founds mechanics on an absolute, true and mathematical time and space.
Life
Isaac Newton (1643-1727), an English mathematician and physicist, set out in the Principia (1687) the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which explain both falling bodies and planetary orbits. He made absolute space and time the framework of motion, a thesis debated until Einstein, and saw the order of the world as the work of God. He also wrote on optics, calculus, theology and alchemy.
Main works
Establishes the three laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Studies light and colour through experiments, notably with the prism.
In his own words
« Absolute, true and mathematical time, in itself and by its own nature, without relation to anything external, flows uniformly; it is also called duration. »
Tempus absolutum verum & Mathematicum, in se & natura sua absq; relatione ad externum quodvis, æquabiliter fluit, alioq; nomine dicitur Duratio;
« Absolute space, by its own nature and without relation to anything external, always remains similar and immovable. »
Spatium absolutum natura sua absq; relatione ad externum quodvis semper manet similare & immobile;
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceThe order of the solar system could only come from the design of an intelligent and powerful being.
Newton, Principia, Scholie général (2e éd. 1713)
Laws must be drawn from phenomena by induction (« I frame no hypotheses »), not invented a priori.
Newton, Principia, livre III, Règles du raisonnement (2e éd. 1713, règle IV en 1726) et Scholie général (1713)