THE PHILOSOPHICAL NEWTON
Andrew Janiak, Newton as Philosopher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008),
ISBN 13 978-0-521-86286-8 (hardback), ISBN 13 978-0-511-41404-6 (eBook), pp. 196
Grigore VIDA*
When Newton is referring to his works, he usually speaks about “my Philosophy.” The reader who opens the third edition of the Principia is announced on the first page that he will learn about “Newtoni Principia Philosophiæ.” Moreover, eighteenth-century expositions of the Newtonian achievements – whether by Henry Pemberton, Colin MacLaurin or Voltaire – are always claiming to present “Newton’s Philosophy.”1 In those days, a title like Newton as Philosopher would have made little sense, since it was obvious that he was one, and not so obvious what else he could have been.