Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) left a voluminous legacy of writings. Despite his influence on the early modern period, his correspondence, manuscripts, and publications in natural philosophy remain scattered throughout many disparate editions. In this volume, Newton’s principal philosophical writings are for the first time collected in a single place. They include excerpts from the Principia and the Opticks, his famous correspondence with Boyle and with Bentley, and his equally significant correspondence with Leibniz, which is often ignored in favor of Leibniz’s later debate with Samuel Clarke. Newton’s exchanges with Leibniz place their different understandings of natural philosophy in sharp relief. The volume also includes \'De Gravitatione\', offered here in a corrected translation, which is crucial for understanding Newton’s relation to his great predecessor Descartes. In a historical and philosophical introduction, Andrew Janiak examines Newton’s philosophical positions and his relations to canonical figures in early modern philosophy.

• Collects Newton’s most important philosophical writings in one volume • Presents new and corrected texts of the works • Many of the works have previously been unavailable

1. Correspondence with Robert Boyle [1679]; 2. ‘De Gravitatione’ [c. 1685]; 3. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [1687, first edition]; 4. Correspondence with Richard Bentley [1692–3]; 5. Correspondence with Leibniz [1693 and 1712]; 6. Correspondence with Roger Cotes [1713]; 7. ‘An Account of the Book Entitled ‘Commercium Epistolicum’ [1715]; 8. Queries to the Opticks [1721].