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Newton's Metaphysics of Space as God's Emanative Effect

Jacquette, Dale

In: Physics in Perspective, 2014, vol. 16, no. 3, p. 344-370

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    Titre
    • Newton's Metaphysics of Space as God's Emanative Effect
    Auteur
    • Jacquette, Dale. Institute for Philosophy Logic and Theoretical Philosophy, University of Bern Unitobler, Länggassstrasse 49a, 3000, Bern 9, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:325705
    Summary
    In several of his writings, Isaac Newton proposed that physical space is God's "emanative effect” or "sensorium,” revealing something interesting about the metaphysics underlying his mathematical physics. Newton's conjectures depart from Plato and Aristotle's metaphysics of space and from classical and Cambridge Neoplatonism. Present-day philosophical concepts of supervenience clarify Newton's ideas about space and offer a portrait of Newton not only as a mathematical physicist but an independent-minded rationalist philosopher.