The General Scholium: Some Notes on Newton's Published and Unpublished Endeavours

Ducheyne, Steffen (2007) The General Scholium: Some Notes on Newton's Published and Unpublished Endeavours.

Abstract

Newton’s immensely famous, but tersely written, General Scholium is primarily known for its
reference to the argument of design and Newton’s famous dictum “hypotheses non fingo”. In the essay
at hand, I shall argue that this text served a variety of goals and try to add something new to our current
knowledge of how Newton tried to accomplish them. The General Scholium highlights a cornucopia of
features that were central to Newton’s natural philosophy in general: matters of experimentation,
methodological issues, theological matters, matters related to the instauration of prisca sapientia,
epistemological claims central to Newton’s empiricism, and, finally, metaphysical issues. For Newton
these matters were closely interwoven. I shall address these matters based on a thorough study of the
extant manuscript material.