Original Research Open access

Anti-Newtonianism in the 18th century: the case of Scotland

Authors

  • Derya Gürses Tarbuck Corresponding author Email Assistant Professor in History, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Published
December 20, 2024
Section
Original Research
DOI
10.4081/peasa.39

Abstract

This study examines anti-Newtonianism within the context of Scotland in the 18th century. discussing its unique intellectual and cultural nuances. Admittedly Newtonianism and anti-Newtonianism were global phenomena, however this article concentrates on the Scottish context to uncover specific intellectual and cultural dynamics. By focusing on the reactions to Newton’s ideas within Scotland, the article aims to reveal the diverse ways Scottish intellectuals engaged with and challenged Newtonian principles.

Keywords

References

  1. Arbuthnot J (1733). An essay concerning the effects of air on human bodies. London, J. Tonson.
  2. Beattie LM (1935). John Arbuthnot: Mathematician and satirist. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674734890
  3. Burnett J (1799). Antient metaphysics or the science of universals with an appendix containing an examination of the principles of Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy. London, T. Cadell.
  4. Cantor GN (1983). Optics after Newton, Theories of Light in Britain and Ireland, 1704-1840. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
  5. Catcott A (1761). A treatise on Deluge. London, Alexander Catcott.
  6. Forbes D (1732). A letter to a bishop concerning some important discoveries in philosophy and theology. London, Duncan Forbes.
  7. Forbes D (1735). Some thoughts concerning religion, natural and revealed, and manner of understanding revelation: tending to show that Christianity is indeed very near, as old as the creation. London, Woodfall.
  8. Forbes D (1750). Reflections on the sources of incredulity with regard to religion. Edinburgh, G. Hamilton and J. Balfour.
  9. Forbes D (1755). The whole works of the Right Honourable Duncan Forbes. Edinburgh, G. Hamilton and J. Balfour.
  10. Frei H (1974). The eclipse of biblical narrative, a study in the eighteenth and nineteenth century hermeneutis. New Haven, Yale University Press.
  11. Friesen J (2003). Archibald Pitcairne, David Gregory and the Scottish origins of English Tory Newtonianism, 1688-1715. Hist Sci 41:163-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/007327530304100203
  12. Guerrini A (1986). The Tory Newtonians: Gregory, Pitcairne and their Circle. J Brit Stud 25:288-311. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/385866
  13. Home H (1771). Of the laws of motion. In: Royal Society of Edinburgh (ed.), Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary. Article I. Edinburgh, G. Hamilton and J. Balfour.
  14. Jacob JR, Jacob MC. (1980). The Anglican Origins of Modern Science. Isis 71:251-267. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/352463
  15. Jacob MC (1981). The radical enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans. London, George Allen & Unwin.
  16. Levine JM (1977). Woodward’s shield: history, science, and satire in Augustan England. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  17. McConnell A (2004). Martine, George (1700-1741). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 37. Oxford, Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18227
  18. Mandelbrote S (2002). Newton and the eighteenth-century Christianity. In: R. Iliffe and G.E. Smith (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Newton. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp. 554-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139058568.016
  19. Mandelbrote S (2004). Eighteenth-century reactions to Newton’s Anti-Trinitarianism. In: J.E. Force and S. Hutton (eds.), Newton and Newtonianism. International Archives of the History of Ideas/Archives internationales d’histoire des idées. Dordrecht,S pringer. pp 93-111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2238-7_6
  20. Manuel FE (1963). Isaac Newton, Historian. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  21. Martine G (1740). An examination of the Newtonian argument for the emptiness of space, and of the resistance of subtle fluids. London, T. Cooper.
  22. Olson R (1983). Tory-High Church opposition to science and scientism in the eighteenth century: the works of John Arbuthnot, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson. In: J. Burke (ed.) (1983) The uses of science in the age of Newton. Berkeley, University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520318649-010
  23. Ross IS (1972). Lord Kames and the Scotland of his day. Oxford, The Clarendon Press.
  24. Shoesmith E (1987). The continental controversy over Arbuthnot’s argument for divine providence. Hist Math 14:133-46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0315-0860(87)90017-6
  25. Shuttleton DE (1985). A modest examination: John Arbuthnot and the Scottish Newtonians. J Eighteenth-Century 18:47-63.
  26. Snobelen SD (2004). To discourse of God: Isaac Newton’s heterodox theology and his natural philosophy. In: P. Wood (ed.), Science and Dissent in England, 1688-1945. Abingdon, Routledge. pp. 39-65
  27. Stewart L (2004). The trouble with Newton in the eighteenth century. In: J.E. Force and S. Hutton (eds.), Newton and Newtonianism. International Archives of the History of Ideas/Archives internationales d’histoire des idées. Dordrecht, Springer. pp. 221-238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2238-7_11
  28. Tarbuck GD (2021). Sociability and Newtonianism in Scotland. Academia Letters. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20935/AL802
  29. Warrand D (1923-1930). More Culloden papers. Inverness, R. Carruthers.
  30. Wilson A (1748). The Principles of Philosophy. London, M. Cooper.
  31. Wilson A (1754). The principles of natural philosophy: with some remarks up an the fundamental principles of the Newtonian philosophy. London, W. Russel.
  32. Wilson A (1764). Short observations on the principles and moving powers assumed by the present system of philosophy. London, W. Nicoll.
  33. Woodward J (1695). An essay towards the natural history of the Earth. London.
  34. Woodward J (1729). An attempt toward a natural history of fossils. London.
  35. Young DA (1987). Scripture in the hands of geologists (part one). W T J 49:1-34.
  36. Young DA (1995). The biblical Flood, a case study of the Church’s response to extrabiblical evidence. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans.

Metrics

Citations and online attention from Dimensions, Altmetric and PlumX.

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

License

Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.