Consequences of Newtonian Physics
The Rational Universe
Newton (1642 - 1727)
The Mechanical Universe
Causality
The Rational Universe
The Rational Universe
- The success of Newton in explaining and predicting all types of physical
motion and structure in the universe from a few simple laws radically
changed scientific thought -- the universe was not an unrelated collection of
activities, it was a rational system
- the French and American Revolutions were dedicated to the idea that people
have certain natural rights
- democracies were established based on deductive arguments that lead
logically from natural rights to the structure of government
- This idea was perhaps the beginning of reductionism
- Thinkers in many disciplines adopted this approach:
- the social sciences were born based on the search for the laws of
human behavior
- everything was looked at as a science to which Newton’s style of
reasoning could be applied
- Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations), attempt to define the laws
of economics
- Auguste Comte -- sociology
- the Declaration of Independence has the same axiomatic structure as
Newton’s Principia
- Thomas Jefferson considered himself a scientist and established governmental
support of the sciences
- Franklin wrote “On Liberty and Necessity; Man in a Newtonian Universe”
- This was the “Age of Reason” and Newton was referred to as the “Bearer of Light
The Mechanical Universe
Causality
- Newton’s laws indicated that the motions and interactions of all material bodies
in the universe obey a few relatively simple rules
- the idea of cause and effect
- if you know the positions and momenta of objects at a given instant in time you
can predict the results of their interactions at other times
- the universe is an elaborate clockwork
- Newtonian concepts of matter, space and time are implicit in his approach
- many philosophers used Newton’s work as evidence of predestination
- irregularities in planetary orbits lead to the discovery of the outer planets using
Newton’s Laws of Universal Gravitation
- scientific method as a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning
- objective universe, therefore science and philosophy go their separate ways