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1156Newton's Ontology of Omnipresence and Infinite SpaceOxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 6 279-308. 2013.This essay explores the role of God’s omnipresence in Newton’s natural philosophy, with special emphasis placed on how God is related to space. Unlike Descartes’ conception, which denies the spatiality of God, or Gassendi and Charleton’s view, which regards God as completely whole in every part of space, it is argued that Newton accepts spatial extension as a basic aspect of God’s omnipresence. The historical background to Newton’s spatial ontology assumes a large part of our investigation, but …Read more
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328A dialogue with Descartes: Newton's ontology of true and immutable naturesJournal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1): 103-125. 2007.: This article is concerned with Newton's appropriation of Descartes' ontology of true and immutable natures in developing his theory of infinitely extended space. It contends that unless the part played by the Platonic distinction between "being a nature" and "having a nature" in Newton's thinking is properly appreciated the foundation of his doctrine of space in relation to God will not be fully understood. It also contends that Newton's Platonism is consistent with his empiricism once the med…Read more
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79Atoms and the ‘analogy of nature’: Newton's third rule of philosophizingStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 1 (1): 3-58. 1970.
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66Newton and the mechanical philosophy: Gravitation as the balance of the heavensSouthern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3): 370-388. 2012.We argue that Isaac Newton really is best understood as being in the tradition of the Mechanical Philosophy and, further, that Newton saw himself as being in this tradition. But the tradition as Newton understands it is not that of Robert Boyle and many others, for whom the Mechanical Philosophy was defined by contact action and a corpuscularean theory of matter. Instead, as we argue in this paper, Newton interpreted and extended the Mechanical Philosophy's slogan “matter and motion” in referenc…Read more
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66Aristotle’s Great ClockPhilosophy Research Archives 12 387-448. 1986.This paper offers a detailed account of arguments in De Caelo I by which Aristotle tried to demonstrate the necessity of the perpetual existence and the perpetual rotation of the cosmos. On our interpretation, Aristotle’s arguments are naturalistic. Instead of being based (as many have thought) on rules of logic and language, they depend, we argue, on natural science theories about abilities (δυνάμεις), e.g., to move and to change, which things have by nature and about the conditions under which…Read more
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59Certain philosophical questions: Newton's Trinity notebookCambridge University Press. 1983.Isaac Newton wrote the manuscript Questiones quaedam philosophicae at the very beginning of his scientific career. This small notebook thus affords rare insight into the beginnings of Newton's thought and the foundations of his subsequent intellectual development. The Questiones contains a series of entries in Newton's hand that range over many topics in science, philosophy, psychology, theology, and the foundations of mathematics. These notes, written in English, provide a very detailed picture…Read more
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54Existence, actuality and necessity: Newton on space and timeAnnals of Science 35 (5): 463-508. 1978.This study considers Newton's views on space and time with respect to some important ontologies of substance in his period. Specifically, it deals in a philosophico-historical manner with his conception of substance, attribute, existence, to actuality and necessity. I show how Newton links these “features” of things to his conception of God's existence with respect of infinite space and time. Moreover, I argue that his ontology of space and time cannot be understood without fully appreciating ho…Read more
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36Newton on Place, Time, and God: An Unpublished SourceBritish Journal for the History of Science 11 (2): 114-129. 1978.Manuscript Add. 3965, section 13, folios 541r–542r and 545r–546r is in the Portsmouth Collection of manuscripts and housed in the University Library, Cambridge. These drafts contain a careful account, in Newton's hand, of his views on place, time, and God. They are part of a large number of drafts relating to the three official editions of the Principia published in Newton's lifetime
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31Aristotle’s Great ClockPhilosophy Research Archives 12 387-448. 1986.This paper offers a detailed account of arguments in De Caelo I by which Aristotle tried to demonstrate the necessity of the perpetual existence and the perpetual rotation of the cosmos. On our interpretation, Aristotle’s arguments are naturalistic. Instead of being based (as many have thought) on rules of logic and language, they depend, we argue, on natural science theories about abilities (δυνάμεις), e.g., to move and to change, which things have by nature and about the conditions under which…Read more
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30Newton's “Principles of Philosophy”: An Intended Preface for the 1704 Opticks and a Related Draft FragmentBritish Journal for the History of Science 5 (2): 178-186. 1970.
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24Certain Philosophical Questions: Newton's Trinity NotebookPhilosophical Review 95 (1): 102. 1986.
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23Chapter five. Mind, intuition, innateness, and ideasIn J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind, Princeton University Press. pp. 164-197. 2009.
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23Science unfettered: a philosophical study in sociohistorical ontologyOhio University Press. 2000.As a result, the works of Popper, Kuhn, Quine, and Lakatos, as well as Heidegger, Gadamer, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Feyerabend, are called into play.
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21Aristotle’s Great ClockPhilosophy Research Archives 12 387-448. 1986.This paper offers a detailed account of arguments in De Caelo I by which Aristotle tried to demonstrate the necessity of the perpetual existence and the perpetual rotation of the cosmos. On our interpretation, Aristotle’s arguments are naturalistic. Instead of being based (as many have thought) on rules of logic and language, they depend, we argue, on natural science theories about abilities (δυνάμεις), e.g., to move and to change, which things have by nature and about the conditions under which…Read more
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19Newton and the demonic furies: Some current problems and approaches in history of scienceHistory of Science 11 (1): 21-48. 1973.
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18Eighteenth Century The Elements of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy. By Voltaire. Trans. John Hanna. London: Frank Cass. 1967. Pp. xvi + 363. 90s (review)British Journal for the History of Science 4 (3): 300-300. 1969.
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18Seventeenth Century Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton. By Robert Hugh Kargon. London: Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. Pp. viii + 168. 1966. 42s. net. Physiologia Epicuro—Gassendo—Charltoniana. By Walter Charleton. Edited by Robert Hugh Kargon. Reprinted from the 1654 edition. New York and London: Johnson Reprint Corporation. Pp. xxv + 491. 1966. $29.50 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 4 (1): 73-76. 1968.
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16Descartes’s changing mindStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 37 (3): 398-419. 2006.Descartes is always concerned about knowledge. However, the Galileo affair in 1633, the reactions to his Discourse on method, and later his need to reply to objections to his Meditations provoked crises in Descartes’s intellectual development the import of which has not been sufficiently recognized. These events are the major reasons why Descartes’s philosophical position concerning how we know and what we may know is radically different at the end of his life from what it was when he began. We …Read more
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15More Fetters to unfetter: A reply to Depew and SchmausSocial Epistemology 16 (4). 2002.This is a response to two reviews of our book "Science Unfettered: A Philosophical Study of Sociohistorical Ontology." We clarify the relationship between the ontological and the ontic, the key phrases: 'being-in-the-world,' the 'facticity' of human existence. We show where the sources of reviewers misunderstandings lie.
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15Seventeenth Century Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes. By J. Edleston. London: F. Cass. 1969. Pp. xcviii + 316 + index. £6.30 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 5 (3): 309-310. 1971.
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12Tradition and Innovation: Newton's Metaphysics of NatureSpringer. 1995.There is a thematic unity to these essays on Newton's thought: they are concerned with the central categories of Newton's metaphysics of nature (matter, causation, force, space, time) and the ways in which Newton's work relates to cultural themes such as providence and creation. Focusing on questions of tradition and innovation and Newton's engaged response to the broader patterns of his contemporary culture, they present a unified, interpretive stance that often challenges the scholarly orthodo…Read more
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10Science Reason Rhetoric (edited book)University of Pittsburgh Press. 1995.This volume marks a unique collaboration by internationally distinguished scholars in the history, rhetoric, philosophy, and sociology of science. Converging on the central issues of rhetoric of science, the essays focus on figures such as Galileo, Harvey, Darwin, von Neumann; and on issues such as the debate over cold fusion or the continental drift controversy. Their vitality attests to the burgeoning interest in the rhetoric of science
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10Review of Henry Krips, J. E. McGuire and Trevor Melia: Science Reason Rhetoric (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (3): 444-446. 1997.
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10PrefaceIn J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind, Princeton University Press. 2009.
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8Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries John Locke: Problems and Perspectives. Ed. by John W. Yolton. London: Cambridge University Press. 1969. Pp. vii + 278. 55s (review)British Journal for the History of Science 5 (1): 101-102. 1970.
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7Chapter 12. Natural Motion and Its Causes: Newton on the “Vis Insita” of BodiesIn Mary Louise Gill & James G. Lennox (eds.), Self-Motion: From Aristotle to Newton, Princeton University Press. pp. 305-330. 2017.
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6Chapter six. Mind-body causality and the mind-body union: The case of sensationIn J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind, Princeton University Press. pp. 198-242. 2009.
Hempstead, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Meta-Ethics |
19th Century Philosophy |