Overview

The enthusiastic reception by natural philosophers of Isaac Newton's (1642-1727) difficult Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), published in 1687, eventually spread Newton's name and influence far beyond the small community of scholars of physics and mathematics. Throughout the eighteenth century, "Newtonian" ideas were put forward in many social and cultural arenas, in England and its colonies in America. Although Newton's name was used to describe many different, even conflicting, viewpoints, most proponents of "Newtonianism" thought of Newton as a paradigm of rational belief and of his work as a model for understanding all aspects of the universe in terms of laws.

Background

It would be impossible to exaggerate Newton's influence on the history of physical science, but his indirect influence on developments in religious, cultural, intellectual, and political life was also profound. How did this happen...