Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Opticks by Isaac Newton
“the main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phaenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical”
Opticks, Book III, Query 28 (Project Gutenberg text of the 4th edition (London, 1730))
Against philosophers who explain everything mechanically and banish the first cause to metaphysics.
Citation: "the main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phaenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical" — Isaac Newton, Opticks, Book III, Query 28 (Project Gutenberg text of the 4th edition (London, 1730)). (id newton-opticks-q4)
Portrait: GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689, Godfrey Kneller, Public domain.
