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Locke's Essay and Newton's Principia

Author(s): G. A. J. Rogers
Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1978), pp. 217-232
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA

BY G. A. J. ROGERS*

I. Introduction.
There is a standard picture of the relationship between John Locke
and Isaac Newton which might be expressed in the following way:
Locke's intellectual and philosophical attitude was molded by what he
saw in the Newtonian achievement and was largely responsible for the
general tone and nature of Locke's philosophical position. According to
this view in the interaction between the two men Locke was the indebted
partner,learning much from his younger colleague, whilst Newton learnt
little, if anything, from the older man. It is indeed sometimes claimed
(see below) that Newton's Principia completely changed Locke's intel-
lectual stance, whilst Newton, it is assumed, was not greatly influenced
by Locke at all. Such opinions of the relation between Locke and
Newton are to be found amongst historians of science especially, though
philosophers too, writing on the history of their subject, have sometimes
been inclined to see the influence of Newton as very substantial. There
are many passages in commentaries on Locke and Newton which reveal
this attitude but I shall draw attention to only four, though all are
recent and reflect positions held by respected scholars. The first is taken
from the notes to Newton's Correspondence,Volume III, by H. W. Turn-
bull. Of Locke, Turnbull wrote: "JohnLocke (1632-1704), philosopher,
... He became a friend of Newton through reading the Principia and
he early introduced its philosophical principles into his writings. . . ."
The implication is clearly that there were specific Newtonian influences
to be found in Locke's work and that these influences were considerable.
The second example is taken from a broadcast discussion on Newton's
Principia between I. Bernard Cohen and Peter Laslett. Locke, Laslett
rightly said, read the Principia just after he had written the Essay Con-
cerning Human Understanding. Laslett went on:
Locke, then, had writtena traditionalphilosopher'sreview of the world and
was preparingit for the press when he was suddenlyfaced with this astonish-
ing book of the greatestintellect amongsthis contemporariesand convinced
thathe didn'tunderstandthe naturalworldat all. The resultwas, in my view,
*
Support for research in connection with this paper was provided by a grant
from the Royal Society. I am very grateful to the following for their comments on
earlier versions of this paper: R. I. Aaron, A Rupert Hall, John Harrison, Peter
Laslett, D. T. Whiteside, and J. W. Yolton.
1 The Correspondence of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1959-), Vol. III, edited
by H. W. Turnbull, and J. F. Scott, 76.

217
218 G. A. J. ROGERS

that he wrote the very remarkable epistle to the reader in the Essay on Human
Understanding, in which he says: "I am only an under-labourer. Newton,
Huygens, are those who really understand the world. My function is to clear
away the rubbish. This is a complete revisal of the social and the intellectual
position of the philosopher. And this could be said to be historically the
beginning of the two cultures .. ."2
We shall turn later to a more detailed look at Laslett's statement. For
the moment, let us just note that once again we have the view expressed
that the Principia had a very substantial influence on Locke's philosophy.
Once again there is no suggestion that Locke's philosophy had any influ-
ence on Newton. This general position is summarized by A. R. and M. B.
Hall: Newton, they write, "is commonly regarded as furnishing the
scientific substratum of Locke's philosophy."3 It is a view from which
the authors do not dissent. My fourth example is taken from John
Herman Randall's The Career of Philosophy:
Locke's Essay stands with Newton's Principia as the fountainhead of British
and French thought in the eighteenth century, as a classic illustration of the
application of the Newtonian "geometrical" or "analytical" method to human
nature.4 . . . In point of fact, Locke assumed to begin with and without
question the whole of Newtonian science, both its verdict on the nature of
science and on the nature of the world.5

This paper challenges that standard view of the interaction between


the two men. I show first that the influence of Newton on Locke was not
nearly as straightforward or as great as it is often depicted.5 Second,
I shall argue that there was some mutual influence, and suggest that
Locke's philosophy may have had a positive influence over Newton's
own thought.6 From this there emerges a new perspective on a crucial

2
Published in The Listener (9 December, 1971), 792.
3 A.R. Hall and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac
Newton (Cambridge, 1962), 81.
4 John Herman
Randall, Jr., The Career of Philosophy. Vol. I. From the Middle
5 Ibid., 601.
Ages to the Enlightenment (New York and London, 1962), 595.
5a In a
second, and subsequent papers, I shall argue that there was some mutual
influence, and suggest that Locke's philosophy may have had a positive influence
on Newton's own thought.
6
Recently James L. Axtell has done much to set the record straight and to
add to our knowledge of the interaction between Locke and Newton. His papers
on this are: "Locke, Newton, and the Elements of Natural Philosophy," Paeda-
gogica Europae, I (1965), 235-45; "Locke's Review of the Principia," Notes and
Records of the Royal Society of London, 20 (1965), 152-61; "Locke, Newton and
The Two Cultures," John Locke: Problems and Perspectives (Cambridge, 1969);
also the introduction to Axtell's edition of Locke's Educational Writings (Cam-
bridge, 1968). I do not always share Axtell's conclusions, however. J. E. McGuire
in his writings on Newton has also noticed that Locke may well have been an
influence upon Newton's thought. Thus, in his "The Origin of Newton's Doctrine
of Essential Qualities," Centaurus, 12 (1968), 238-39, McGuire suggests that
LOCKE'S ESSA Y AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 219

period of seventeenth-centurythought, namely, that the effect of Locke's


philosophy on the acceptability of the new science was probably more
profound than is generally recognized.
Locke's most important philosophical work is, of course, his Essay
Concerning Human Understandingand if we are to find the influence of
Newton in his writings it is there that we should look. To appreciate
correctly the influence of Newton on Locke's work it is absolutely vital
that we are accurate about the dates when Locke wrote the Essay and
also when he read or otherwise came to know of Newton's work. This
is especially important because there has been considerable confusion
in some people's mind about the relative dates of the two thinkers. First,
one general point, which is obvious, but is still sometimes overlooked, is
that Locke saw only the first edition of Newton's Principia (1687).
Locke died in 1704; the second and third editions were published in 1713
and 1726, and, as is well known, there are considerable important differ-
ences between the three. Newton's other classic of science, the Opticks,
was published in 1704, shortly before Locke's death, and too late to
have any direct influence on Locke, though this is not to say that Locke
was not aware of Newton's work in optics, much of which had been
published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. It is perhaps sur-
prising, but such elementary facts have been overlooked by writers on
Locke, Newton, and the Enlightenment.7

Locke may well have modified Newton's views on the distinction between primary
and secondary qualities. See as well McGuire, "Atoms and the 'Analogy of Nature':
Newton's Third Rule of Philosophizing," Studies in History and Philosophy of
Science, 1 (1970), esp. 32-35.
7 I
give three examples where the lack of proper dating has led to either a flat
mistake or a wrong emphasis about the connection between Locke and Newton.
Example 1. In his Locke's Theory of Knowledge and its Historical Relations
(Cambridge, 1917, reprinted in 1960) J. Gibson, in discussing Locke's views on
space, wrote: "Since the distinction between 'space in itself', as something 'uniform
and boundless', and the extension of body which is presented to us in sense per-
ception, can hardly be regarded as the direct product of Locke's own principles,
it is natural to look for some external influence to account for the doctrine of the
Essay. Now we know that Locke was a diligent student of the less mathematical
portions of Newton's Principia, which was published in 1686, four years before
the Essay. We can hardly, it would seem, be wrong in connecting Locke's recently
acquired views about 'space in itself' with Newton's exposition of 'absolute space'
. ." (251). But we now know that this distinction was made by Locke as early
as 1676. It is to be found in his journal entry for March 27th. This is now pub-
lished in An Early Draft of Locke's Essay, Together With Excerpts from his
Journals, edited by R. I. Aaron and Jocelyn Gibb (Oxford, 1936), 77. Gibson
assumed that Locke had read the Principia when he wrote Essay, II, 15, but it
had not then even been published.
Example 2. In his Isaac Newton (Clarendon Biographies, Oxford, 1967) J. D.
North writes: "The Opticks, on the other hand, was tolerably easy reading, and,
strangely enough, it was through this work that many had their only first-hand
220 G. A. J. ROGERS

To appreciate the relationshipbetween Locke and Newton, including


their mutual influence, we must clearly recognize that each wrote his most
important work independently of the other. Of the influence of Locke
on the Principia in its first edition there can be no question: we know of
none, nor is it likely that any will ever be discovered. But it is not fully
appreciatedthat the first edition of the Essay Concerning Human Under-
standing (1690) was almost equally unaffected by the Principia.
Leaving the production of the first edition of the Principia to one
side, therefore, as one where there is no problem, let us turn to the
writing of the Essay.

II. The Production of the Esgay.


There are three drafts of Locke's Essay extant.8 Following Aaron I
shall refer to them as Drafts A, B, and C. Drafts A and B were written
in 1671. Draft C was written in 1685. A version very nearly the same
as the published edition was completed by December 1686 when Locke
sent the fourth book to Edward Clarke who had already received the
three earlier books. Locke was then in Holland, where he had been since
1683. He wrote to Clarke on the 31st December:
You have here at length the fourth and last book of my scatteredthoughts
concerningthe Understanding,and I see now more than ever that I have
reasonto call themscattered,since neverhavinglooked them over all together

encounter with Newton's thoughts on gravitation. John Locke, the philosopher, was
much influenced by it ..." (24). As we have noted above, the Opticks was not
published until just before Locke's death. The ultimate source for North's view is
probably the passage from Desaguliers, quoted p. 7. See also note 31 below.
Example 3. Jonathan Bennett, in his Locke, Berkeley, Hume. Central Themes
(Oxford, 1971) writes: "Locke inherited from Descartes, or borrowed from Newton
and Boyle, a distinction between 'primary' and 'secondary' qualities" (89). The
distinction is made by Locke as early as 1671 (cf. An Early Draft, 73-74). There
is no reason to believe that Locke was influenced by Newton at all in his formula-
tion of the distinction.
8 The earlier 1671 Draft
(Draft A) is in the Houghton Library, Harvard
University. The later 1671 Draft (Draft B) is in the Bodleian Library. The draft
of 1685 is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. There is a different ver-
sion of the first draft in the Shaftsbury Papers in the Public Record Office. (Cf.
Peter Laslett in Mind [Jan. 1952], 89-92.) On all of these drafts see Aaron, John
Locke (Third edition, Oxford, 1971), 50-73. Draft A has been published in An
Early Draft of Locke's Essay Together with Excerpts from his Journals, edited by
R. I. Aaron and Jocelyn Gibb (Oxford, 1936). Draft B has also been published as
An Essay Concerning the Understanding, Knowledge, Opinion, and Assent, edited
by Benjamin Rand (Cambridge, Mass., 1931). Draft C has not yet been published,
but is to be included in the forth-coming volume Drafts for An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, edited by Peter H. Nidditch in The Clarendon Edition of
the Works of John Locke series.
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 221

till since this last partwas done, I find the ill effectsof writingin patchesand
at distanttimes as this whole essay has been.9
We do not possess the draft which Clarke received from Locke.1? But
Draft C does tell us quite a lot about the composition of the Essay in its
later stages even though it is a draft of only the first two books. What it
indicates in a very clear way is that on substantial points the published
work argued the same position as that put forward by Locke in 1685.
There are differences, some of them of considerable interest. But the
differences which do exist show no sign at all of the impact on Locke of
reading Newton's Principia. The only recognition accorded Newton in
the first edition of the Essay is in the famous "Epistle to the Reader"
where Locke clearly places Newton as the greatest among contemporary
scientists.
That Locke does not accord Newton any other recognition shows
that whilst he was revising the Essay for publication Locke was not at
all inclined to alter it to take account of the Principia." In no way did
Locke feel that Newton's work called into question any parts of his major
arguments. Nor can Locke's attitude be explained by either his unfamil-
iarity with, or lack of understanding of, the Principia. (Both of these
points are taken up below.) If there are any conflicts between what is
said in the Essay and what is said in the Principia then it is fairly safe to
assume that either Locke did not notice them or he did not believe that
they were worth following up. There is in fact only one major point of
potential conflict in the two books and that is in the respective treatment
each gives to the notions of space and time. Locke never accepted
Newton's absolutist position on space.l2 It is a sign of some of the very

9 The Correspondence of John Locke and Edward Clarke, ed. Benjamin Rand
(London, 1927), 177.
10Here I follow Aaron in believing that Draft C as we have it was not the
draft which Clarke received from Locke. It is likely that Draft C never reached
England. Cf. Aaron, John Locke, 57.
11We know that Locke was indeed revising the Essay as late as 1689 for that
is the date which appears in Essay, II, XIV, 30. The passage reads: "Hence we see
that some men imagine the duration of the world from its first existence to this
present year 1689 to have been 5639 years .. ." (Quotations from the Essay will
either be from the first edition of 1690, as this one is, or from the Everyman edition,
edited by John W. Yolton [London, 1961], 2 vols.) Since commencing work on
this paper the Clarendon Edition of Locke's Essay, edited by P. H. Nidditch has
been published and it has proved an invaluable guide to the Essay and its history.
In Draft C Locke had written: "Hence we see that some men imagin ye duration
of ye world from its first existence to this present year 1671 to have been 5619
years...." Cf. also Draft B ? 120. It is odd that Locke does not make the right
correction to the figure for the duration of the world.
12 Aaron
(op. cit., 156f.) has already drawn attention to the fact that it is
wrong to view Locke's account of space as Newtonian, and he rightly places
important weight on the discussions of space in the drafts of the Essay and in
222 G. A. J. ROGERS

different intellectual influences on each of them in their formative years.


Put simply, Newton was much more strongly influencedby the Cambridge
Platonists, and Platonic views generally, than Locke was. Indeed Locke
was consistently strongly and overtly hostile to a very great deal of the
Platonism that he currently found.13 This difference between the two
men and its importance for an understandingof their relationship will be
explored below in section VII. One further comment only is in order
here. It is that once again it is vital that it is remembered that Locke
saw only the first edition of the Principia, for in it the only discussion of
absolute space and time is in the Scholium added to Definition VIII. That
discussion is comparatively austere. The full metaphysical and theolog-
ical implications of Newton's views on space and time were only clearly
brought out in the General Scholium of the second edition of 1713. It
was Newton's remarks in this section of the Principia which were to be
the main source for the exchanges on absolute space and time in the
Leibniz-Clarke correspondence of 1715-16. From this we can see that
from Locke's reading of the Principia, prior to his completion of his
preparation of the Essay for the press, he did not have much evidence
from which he might draw the conclusion that a great deal might turn
on the differences between his own and Newton's views on space and
time.14 What Locke would have undoubtedly gathered from his reading
of the Principia was that Newton did not at all subscribe to the view of

Locke's journals. Another potential point of conflict was not apparent from the
first edition of the Principia. That was their differing views on the primary-
secondary quality distinction. This topic would require a separate paper, but see
McGuire's paper cited in Note 6. In the first edition of the Principia Newton does
not include what in the second edition was to become Rule III.
13 On this see G. A. J. Rogers, "Locke, Newton, and the Cambridge Platonists
on Innate Ideas," JHI (April 1979).
14 In the Scholium to Definition VIII Newton
begins: "Hitherto I have laid
down the definitions of such words as are less known, and explained the sense in
which I would have them to be understood in the following discourse. I do not
define time, space, place, and motion, as being well known to all. Only I must
observe, that the common people conceive those quantities under no other notions
but from the relation they bear to sensible objects. And thence arise certain
prejudices, for the removing of which it will be convenient to distinguish them into
absolute and relative, true and apparent, mathematical and common." Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy, Andrew Motte's translation revised by Florian
Cajori (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1934), 6. It might be said that, roughly,
Locke's view of space and time was, and remained, the view of the "common
people." Whether the common people were wrong was to be much debated in the
ensuing centuries. It is of some significance that Locke's notes, which he made in
September 1687 and March 1688, and which are preserved in the Bodleian Library
(Mss. Locke c.33, fols. 19-20 and c.31 fols. 99-100) make no reference to Newton's
commitment to absolute space and time. An account of the differing views of Locke
and Newton on space and time, and their import, is something that I plan to give
elsewhere. Dr. D. T. Whiteside has pointed out to me that the commitment to
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 223

Descartes that matter and space were the same thing. It was just one
among very many positions which they held in common.15
III. Locke's Scientific Background. 6

We can say with confidence that the first edition of Locke's great
work was not in any sense influenced by Newton. But what then of
Laslett's statement that reading the Principia convinced Locke that he
did not understandthe natural world at all? (Quoted above, Section I).
The fact is that Laslett offered us no evidence for this view. It is my
belief that the evidence points in another direction. The fact is that Locke
was acknowledged by his contemporaries to be an excellent and learned
virtuoso. By the 1680's he had behind him a substantial record in sci-
entific activity. It is not my intention to give a detailed account of Locke's
many scientific qualifications, but some key points are these. Locke had
been educated at Oxford just at the time when that university was very
much concerned with the new science centered on the group around John
Wilkins at Wadham College. Locke went up to Christ Church in 1652.
In the years that he was there he was to become well acquainted with
many of the very great scientists of the seventeenth century including
Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Thomas Willis, John Wallis, Robert Hooke,
David Thomas, and Richard Lower. More important still, he was to
become a collaborator with some of the most distinguished. From
Locke's notebooks of the period we learn that even as an undergraduate
he was beginning to take a keen interest in experimental physiology,
probably through the influence of the physician Richard Lower.17 His
interestin medicine developed rapidly;he attended the lecturesof Thomas
Willis and seriously considered taking up medicine professionally. Later

absolute space pervades the whole mathematical substratum of Book I of the


Principia. It is true that Locke's apparent failure to grasp this may well point to a
failure on his part really to understand the Principia, at least at his first reading.

Locke's views on this see especially Essay II, XIII 12-16. Newton's views
on matter were not clearly formulated in the first edition of the Principia. Rule III
of the Regulae of the second edition has no corresponding hypothesis in the first
edition, but Newton's rejection of the Cartesian position is manifest, and was of long
standing. It is, for example, powerfully present in his paper De Gravitatione et
Aequipondio Fluidorum, probably written between 1664 and 1668. Cf. A. R. Hall
and Marie Boas Hall, Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton (Cambridge,
1962), 89-121.
16 There has in recent
years been much important work done on the scientific
background to Locke's thought. Particularly relevant are: Maurice Cranston, John
Locke. A Biography (London, 1957), Kenneth Dewhurst, John Locke (1632-
1704): Physician and Philosopher. A Medical Biography (London, 1963); the
many articles by Dewhurst on Locke's medical researches too numerous to list
here; the three articles by Axtell already cited.
17
Bodleian Library, MS Locke e4.
224 G. A. J. ROGERS

he was to collaborate with Lower when the latter was making some of
his most importantexperiments,'8and later still Locke was to collaborate
with Thomas Sydenham.19Locke, indeed, was a distinguished physician,
but his interest in science was by no means confined to medicine.
Medicine required chemistry and this Locke set out to master.
Through his interest he soon became acquainted with Robert Boyle and
by 1663 they were actively working together on scientific projects. Boyle's
Memoirs for the Natural History of the Humane Blood (1683-4) is
addressed to "the very Ingenious and Learned Doctor J. L."20
Later Newton and Locke were to be of mutual assistance in chemistry.
When Newton showed interest in an experiment of Boyle's involved
some "red earth" Locke sent him some, more, in fact, than Newton
required. Newton wrote to Locke:
You have sent much more earththan I expected. For I desiredonly a speci-
men, having no inclinationto prosecutethe process. For in good earnest I
have no opinion of it. But since you have a mind to prosecuteit I shall be
glad to assist you all I can ....21
There is undoubtedly a question-markover Locke's early mastery of
mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Although Fox Bourne reports
Locke as having attended lecture courses by both John Wallis and Seth
Ward,22we have no clear evidence of how much Locke really knew in
these areas. Axtell, however, has gone a long way to establishing that
Locke was capable of following much of the Principia when it was first
published23and has certainly supplied sufficient evidence for rejecting
the traditional picture of Locke as a man totally ignorant of the mathe-
matical sciences. It is often taken as conclusive evidence of Locke's lack
of mathematical knowledge that he is said to have consulted Huygens as
to whether the proofs in the Principia were mathematically sound.24 But
in the light of Axtell's work this allegation must surely be treated with
caution. It is well worth remembering that several other contemporaries
of Newton admitted they could not follow all his mathematics, and some
of those were mathematicians. David Gregory, later to be Professor of
Mathematics in Edinburgh, wrote to Newton in September 1687 con-
gratulating him on the Principia, but noting that "few would understand

18 Cf. Dewhurst, op. cit., 13-14. 19Ibid., 34 ff.


20
On this see Dewhurst, "Locke's Contributions to Boyle's Researches on the
Air and on Human Blood," Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 17 (1962),
198-206.
21
Newton Correspondence. III, 215. The letter was written on 7 July, 1692.
22
Cf. H. R. Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke, 2 vols. (London, 1876), I,
44ff., 55.
23
See esp. Axtell's "Locke, Newton, and the Two Cultures," 175ff.
24
The most usually cited source for this, almost certainly true, story is J. T.
Desaguliers, Experimental Philosophy (1763), I, viii.
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 225

it."25 Gilbert Clarke, another mathematician, wrote in the same month


to Newton "I confess I do not as yet well understand so much as your
first three sections."26 In December of the same year John Craig (d.
1731), yet another mathematician, wrote to a friend that he found
understandingthe Principia, "no small trouble."27In the light of all this,
Axtell is surely correct to emphasize the positive side of Locke's achieve-
ment in coming to grips with the Principia, probably writing a clear and
accurate, if necessarily superficial, review of it within a few months,
and returning to it later to tackle more obstruse sections.
If the first edition of the Essay gives us no real sign of the positive
impact of the Principia on Locke then in truth it cannot be maintained
that subsequent editions are over-burdened with references to Newton's
work or to positions which presuppose his discoveries. In the second
edition of 1694, in the chapter Of Maxims of the fourth Book, Locke
added a substantial section on the use of maxims which includes the
following:
They [i.e., maxims]are not of use to help men forwardsin the advancement
of sciences, or new discoveriesof yet unknowntruths. Mr. Newton, in his
never enough to be admiredbook, has demonstratedseveral propositions,
which are so many new truths,before unknownto the world, and are further
advancesin mathematicalknowledge;but, for the discoveryof these, it was
not the general maxims, What is, is; or, The whole is bigger than a part, or
the like that helped him. These were not the clues that led him into the dis-
covery of the truth and certaintyof those propositions. Nor was it by them
that he got the knowledgeof those demonstrations,but by findingout inter-
mediate ideas that showed the agreementor disagreementof the ideas, as
expressedin the propositionhe demonstrated....28
Here Locke uses the mathematics of the Principia to support a general
point he wishes to make, and indeed which he had made in the first
edition, against all those who wish to claim that knowledge is dependent
on having knowledge of general maxims-a thesis that Locke was bound
to reject as he grounded all knowledge in experience of the particular.
We have to wait until the fourth edition of the Essay, in 1700, before
we find another clear example of the impact of the Principia on Locke's
Essay. In Book II, ChapterVIII, Section 11, Locke in the earlier editions
had written:
The next thing to be considered,is, how Bodies operate one upon another,
25
Newton, Correspondence, II, 484. 26 Ibid., 485.
27
Ibid., 501. I. Bernard Cohen in his Introduction to Newton's 'Principia'
(Cambridge, 1971) suggests that Newton may have had Locke specifically in mind
when he wrote an emendation which he contemplated making to the introductory
paragraph of Book III of the Principia. It is possible that Cohen is right but there
were so many eminent men who could not follow all of Newton's proofs that the
suggestion seems unlikely. Cf. op. cit., 147-48.
28Essay, IV, VIII, 11. Yolton edition, II, 199-200.
226 G. A. J. ROGERS

and that is manifestlyby impulse, and nothing else. It being impossibleto


conceive, that Body should operateon what it does not touch, (which is all
one as to imagineit can operatewhereit is not) or whenit does touch, operate
any other way than by Motion.
In the fourth edition this was changed to:
The next thing to be consideredis, how bodies produceideas in us; and that
is manifestlyby impulse,the only way which we can conceive bodies operate
in.

The generalization about the ability of bodies to operate without contact


has disappeared.
The explanation for this change is to be found in Locke's third
letter to Bishop Stillingfleet. It reveals a way in which Newton's book
played a part in modifying Locke's ideas. But it does not reveal a funda-
mental reappraisal. Rather it shows that Newton's book added further
confirmation of a general position to which Locke already subscribed.
The general position was that one cannot determine a priori what the
powers of objects are except where there is a contradiction implied.
Locke wrote:
.. You ask, how can my idea of liberty agree with "the idea that bodies
can operate only by motion and impulses?" Answ. By the omnipotencyof
God, who can make all things agree, that involve not a contradiction. It is
true I say, "that bodies operate by impulse and nothing else." And so I
thoughtwhen I writ it, and can yet conceive no other way of their operation.
But I am since convincdby the judiciousMr. Newton's incomparablebook,
that it is too bold a presumptionto limit God's power, in this point by my
narrowconceptions. The gravitationof mattertowardsmatter,by ways in-
conceivableto me, is not only a demonstrationthat God can, if he pleases,
put into bodies, powers and ways of operation above what can be derived
from our idea of body, or can be explainedby what we know of matter,but
also an unquestionableand everywherevisible instance,that he has done so.
And thereforein the next edition of my book, I shall take care to have that
passagerectified.29
The third letter was published in 1699, the year before Locke's
alterations appeared in the Essay.
The examples show that the Essay was not seriously altered by Locke
as a result of his reading and comprehension of the Principia. It is a
point of some weight for a full appreciation of the Essay's significance.
In so far as the approaches to science and knowledge revealed in the
Essay and the Principia are the same, certainly with respect to all the
editions of the Essay and the first edition of the Principia, then this is
because their authors shared a common outlook rather than because one
was greatly influential on the other. To suggest, as some have done, that
29 The Works of John Locke, 7th ed. (London, 1768), I, 754.
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 227

the Principia was immediately influential because we can recognize its


impact on the Essay is totally to misunderstandthe background of both
works and it leads to a wrong appraisal of the place which the Essay
occupies in seventeenth-centurythought.30
Let us now return to Laslett's suggestion that Locke was convinced
by his reading of the Principia that he really did not understand the
natural world at all. We may surely grant that an inability to follow all
of the mathematics of the Principia is not in itself reason to suppose that
Locke would feel that he did not understandthe natural world. We must
of course recognize that there are degrees of comprehension, and that
there are two different things to be understood, the world itself, and
Newton's account of it. It is, I believe, certain that Locke felt he under-
stood the natural world a good deal better after reading the Principia,
even though, as no doubt he would have gladly conceded, he had neither
tried nor been able to follow all of Newton's mathematics. Here the
wording of Desaguliers' account of Locke's consultations with Huygens
is relevant. The passage reads:
The celebratedLocke, who was incapableof understandingthe 'Principia'
fromhis wantof geometricalknowledge,inquiredof Huygensif all the mathe-
maticalpropositionsin that work were true. When he was assuredthat he
might depend upon their certainty,he took them for granted,and carefully
examinedthe reasoningsand corollariesdeducedfrom them. In this manner
he acquireda knowledgeof the physicaltruthsin the 'Principia',and became
a firmbelieverin the discoverieswhich it contained. In the same mannerhe
studiedthe treatiseon 'Optics',and made himself masterof every part of it
whichwas not mathematical.31
It is almost certain that this is the source for the view that Locke was a
keen student of the Opticks, even though, as we have already seen, it did
not appear until shortly before his death. But that apart, one very inter-

30
Despite my admiration for his important contributions to a correct under-
standing of the relation between Locke and Newton I cannot therefore agree with
Axtell's judgement that in the Essay "there is considerable evidence-both internal
and external-that Locke was deeply influenced by Newton's achievements, but
especially by the whole methodology that lay behind the Newtonian synthesis."
("Locke's Review of the Principia," 159-60.) It is sometimes suggested that the
really important effect of the Principia on Locke was that it made him aware of
the power of mathematical deduction, and therefore of deduction generally. I can
ifind no support for this in the Essay, and evidence to the contrary. Those passages
in the Essay where Locke speaks of the power of deductive knowledge are often
clearly anticipated in drafts of the Essay written in 1671. Thus in Essay IV, II, 9-
14, Locke says that "demonstration" (i.e., deductive reasoning as exhibited in
geometry) can be carried into other areas. This argument is anticipated in Draft
B, ? 45 and 46.
31 As well as in the Desaguliers reference, already cited in Note 24, the story

is reported in Sir David Brewster's Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries
of Sir Isaac Newton, 2 vols. (Edinburgh and London, 1815), I, 339.
228 G. A. J. ROGERS

esting facet of the story is that Locke is reported as consulting Huygens


about only the mathematics of the Principia and not about any other
aspect of the work. As is well known, Huygens was not wholeheartedly
a supporter of Newton.32 His attitude, along with other Cartesians,
anticipated that of Leibniz in several particulars. But Locke was clearly
not prepared to accept Huygen's verdict on the work. Rather, he sat
down to study it, and, the mathematics granted, to assess it for himself.33
What exactly was Locke's reaction to the Principia when he first read
it? We have several clues, but none of them suggest any kind of major
reappraisalon Locke's part. We have already seen that the draft of the
Essay received no important changes. But we also have what is almost
certainly Locke's review, written in 1688. The review begins by indicat-
ing that Newton's book is part of a recent, but already established,
approach, namely the geometricizing of mechanics. The Principia,
Locke was saying, was not new in terms of its method, but it was new in
terms of the depth to which that method had been taken, and although
there are some innovations of method in the Principia, Locke's general
point is surely sound. But it is worth emphasizing that the development
of such a geometrical method was, as we have already seen, an aspiration
which Locke held prior to his reading the Principia. (See Note 30 above.)
In his review by quoting the Scholium to Principia Book I, Proposition
LXIX, Locke also makes a point of the fact that Newton did not mean
by attraction anything other than:
l'effort que font les corps, pour s'approcherl'un de l'autre, soit que cet
procede, ou de l'action des corps qui tendent l'un vers l'autre, ou qui se
choquent reciproquementpar les corpusculesqu'ils exhalent; soit qu'il se
fasse par Faction de l'Ether, par celle de l'air, ou de quelque autre milieu
sensible, ou insensible,dans lequel ces corps nagent, & qui les pousse Fun
contrel'autre. Je me sers, dansle meme sens general,du terme d'impulsion.34

Huygens' attitude towards the Principia was judicial in his Discours sur la
32

cause de la Pesanteur (1690) but he was less polite in a letter to Leibniz. Cf.
Oeuvres completes de Christiaan Huygens publiees par le Societe hollandaise des
Sciences (The Hague, 1888-1950, 22 vols.), IX, 538.
33When Locke first read the Principia in 1687, he was in Rotterdam. Huygens
was also then in Holland, and it is probable that they met there. It is possible that
they first met much earlier, in 1677, when they were both in Paris. It may be
objected that what is not possible is to understand the Principia without understand-
ing the mathematics, for the simple and sufficient reason that it is a work of
mathematics and nothing else. It must, however, be remembered that Desaguliers
was himself attempting to show that it was possible to understand Newton's philos-
ophy without understanding mathematics, and he tells the story about Locke
precisely to illustrate that possibility.
34Bibliotheque Universelle & Historique de l'Annee 1688, 439. The review
which covers pages 436-450 is over 2000 words in length. For contrasting assess-
ments of it see Axtell, "Locke's Review of the 'Principia'," cited in Note 6, and
Cohen, An Introduction to Newton's 'Principia', cited in Note 27, 145-47. Although
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 229

This underlines the fact that Locke was well aware that Newton was
basing his argument on what he took to be well established empirical
concepts, once again entirely in keeping with the empiricist approach
of Locke himself.
The suggestion is, therefore, that what Locke found in the Principia
was the exemplification of a method to which he himself already sub-
scribed. He already believed that a combination of observation, general-
ization or induction, and deduction was the only route to knowledge of
nature and that the Principia exhibited just that method in its most
fruitful manner.35 It was thus perfectly natural for him to turn to it as
an example when he wished to stress that, contrary to the Ramist tradi-
tion, but entirely in keeping with that of Bacon, there was a great differ-
ence between "the method of acquiringknowledge and of communicating,
between the method of raising any science and that of teaching it to others
as far as it is advanced."36It was not on maxims that Newton's science
rested, said Locke, but on showing by a chain of related ideas how one
idea was necessarily connected to another.
Mr. Newton, in his never enough to be admired book, has demonstrated
several propositions,which are so many new truthsbefore unknownto the
world, and are further advances in mathematicalknowledge;but, for the
discovery of these, it was not the general maxims, What is, is or The whole is
biggerthan a part, or the like that helped him.... but by findingout inter-
mediate ideas that showed the agreementor disagreementof the ideas as
expressedin the propositionshe demonstrated.37

these assessments have rather different objectives I would tend to support Axtell's
rather than Cohen's. Cohen rather underplays the function of the review in the
Bibliotheque Universelle. It must be remembered that Locke was in a sense trying
to sell the Principia to a Cartesian-orientated public, who were, nevertheless,
unlikely in general to be mathematically sophisticated. It is worth emphasizing
that the non-mathematician, Locke, grasps immediately a crucial aspect of Newton's
presentation which, notoriously, the mathematician Roger Cotes, in his Preface to
the second edition of the Principia, completely missed, much to the annoyance of
Newton. It is possible to doubt that Locke was the author of the review for there
is no conclusive final evidence that he did write it. However, as Axtell argues,
the comparison between Locke's manuscript notes and the published review, the
presence of Locke in Holland, the known fact that he did write reviews for the
journal, and the lack of any other candidate makes quite a strong case.
35 It is worth
underlining the fact that mathematics was for Locke not a
discipline which had a unique method. It was exactly on a par with any other
deductive argument which moved from idea to idea via necessary connection. It
was precisely because of this that Locke believed that it was in theory possible to
have deductive systems of physics in areas which were not mathematical. Once
this is taken, then the otherwise puzzling remarks in Essay, IV, II, 9 ff. become clear.
36 Essay, IV, VII, 11. On the Ramist tradition and on Bacon see, for
example,
Lisa Jardine, Francis Bacon: Discovery and the Art of Discourse (Cambridge,
1974) esp. chapters 1, 2, and 3.
37
Essay, IV, VII, 11.
230 G. A. J. ROGERS

It would thus appear that to read the Principia was not for Locke any
sort of traumatic experience. Quite the contrary. It confirmed for him
all his own methodological conclusions. The only way in which natural
philosophy could be advanced was by the methods of observation and
deduction, and, although there were definite limits to what could be
learnt by the application of such techniques, Newton had shown that
they were, nevertheless, capable of producing the most wonderful results.
The Principia was for Locke the vindication of a general methodological
approach to which he had subscribed for perhaps twenty years.
IV. Locke and Newton: their personal acquaintance.
There is no evidence to suggest that Locke met Newton prior to the
former's return from Holland in 1689 after his absence since 1683. It
is, however, just possible that they did meet before Locke's departure.
Locke was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1668 and remained
in London until November 1675, except for a month which he spent in
France. Newton was elected a Fellow in January 1671/2, but he had
been in London in 1669 and in February 1675. Whether on either of
these occasions they did actually meet can only be a matter of conjecture.
I have been able to uncover only one piece of documentary evidence
which connects them prior to Locke's stay in Holland. In one of Locke's
commonplace books for the years 1676-94 there occurs the following
entry: "Aqua the weight of water to air is as 950 to one. Mr. Newton."38
The entry is dated 1680. But it is unlikely that this information was
conveyed personally to Locke from Newton. As it appears to have no
published source, it is probable, that it was conveyed to Locke via a
third party, and the most likely third party is Robert Boyle with whom
Newton was then in correspondence, and with whom Locke was then
collaborating.39 By this stage Locke would already be familiar with
Newton's work in optics which had been published in the Royal Society
Transactions in 1672.
Whatever the truth about their earlier contact, Locke and Newton
did not become friends until much later, for it was not until after Locke's
return from Holland at the beginning of 1689 that they became well

38
Bodleian Library, MS Locke C.42A f.244.
39 AlthoughBoyle is the most probable source he is not the only possible one.
Isaac Barrow was another. Locke met Barrow in 1672 and Barrow gave Locke a
copy of his Lectiones Geometricae (1670). The book is inscribed "Ex Dono
Authoris Viri cujus eruditiones pars minima est mathesis laudis doctrina." On this
see John Harrison and Peter Laslett, The Library of John Locke, 2nd ed. (Oxford,
1971), 44-73. It is totally unlikely that Barrow would have conveyed this informa-
tion from Newton to Locke, but Barrow's acquaintance with Locke at this stage
establishes a contact between Locke and Trinity College. For Barrow's influence
on Newton's views on space and matter see E. W. Strong, "Barrow and Newton,"
Journal of the History of Philosophy, 8(1970), 155-72.
LOCKE'S ESSAY AND NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA 231

acquainted. It is traditionally assumed that Locke and Newton met in


late 1689 or early 1690 at the salon of the Earl of Pembroke. Although
there is no positive evidence for this it seems entirely plausible. Wherever
it was, Locke and Newton had soon established a personal contact which
was to become a friendship lasting until Locke's death. They must soon
have recognized that they had much in common. Both were keenly
interested in the natural sciences, though Locke's interests were wider
and shallower than Newton's, both were deeply religious and believed
that religion was capable of rational comprehension. Their family back-
grounds were far from dissimilar. Both came from remote rural areas
and both were from modest middle-class homes. Both remained life-long
bachelors, both were disinclined to rush into print. More specifically,
their intellectual outlooks were remarkably alike: both were Whig in
politics; both were opposed to enthusiasm in the matter of religion; both,
whilst strongly attracted to the philosophy of Descartes, were in fact set
against what they took to be the fundamental flaws both in Cartesian
theory and in Cartesian methodology; both were committed to the method
in science which found expression in the work of the Royal Society.40

40
Fully to document the claims made here in respect of the shared hostility to
Cartesian methodology and the shared support of the method in science which
found expression in the Royal Society would itself require a long paper. There
are, however, some brief pertinent remarks which may be made. Both Locke and
Newton rejected the Cartesian view that a theory in science can be accepted as
established if it can be shown that the theory is compatible with all known empirical
data. Descartes claimed in the Principles of Philosophy (Part IV Principle CCIV)
that "I believe that I have done all that is required of me if the causes I have
assigned are such that they correspond to all the phenomena manifested by
nature." It was precisely this type of hypothetical explanation, which found
expression in the work of many Cartesians, such as Rohault and Huygens, to which
Newton was so strongly opposed. Newton's rejection of this "hypothetical" method
not only found expression in the Regulae, the General Scholium of the Principia,
and the 31st Query of the Opticks, but also in his manuscripts. The following two
passages are, I believe, representative examples, both taken from drafts for the
later Queries: 1. "Could all the phenomena of nature be (evidently) deduced from
only three or four general suppositions there might be great reason to allow those
suppositions to be true: but if for explaining every new Phenomenon you make a
new Hypothesis if you suppose yt ye particles of Air are of such a figure size and
frame, those of water of such another, those of vitriol of such another, those of
Quicksilver of such another, those of flame of such another, those of Magnetick
effluvia of such another. If you suppose that light consists in such a motion pres-
sion or force and that its various colours, are made by such & such variations of
the motion & so of other things: your Philosophy will be nothing else than a
systeme of Hypotheses. And what certainty can there be in a Philosophy wch
consists in as many Hypotheses as there are Phaenomena to be explained. To
explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age.
Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come
after, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of anything:
And there is no other way of doing any thing with certainty than by drawing con-
232 G. A. J. ROGERS

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that a detailed account of


the shared intellectual attitudes of Locke and Newton would go a long
way to describing most of the major intellectual forces which shaped the
eighteenth century.
University of Keele.

clusions from experiments & phaenomena untill you come at general Principles
& then from those Principles giving an account of Nature. Whatever is certain in
Philosophy is owing to this method & nothing can be done without it." (U.L.C.
Add MS. 3970 f.479.)
2. ". .. if without deriving the properties of things from Phaenomena you feign
Hypotheses & think by them to explain all nature you may make a plausible systeme
of Philosophy for getting your self a name, but your systeme will be little better
than a Romance." (U.L.C. Add MS. 3970 f.480.)
These quotations do not, of course, establish that Newton did in fact practice
the method he preached. There is mounting evidence that often he did not. See,
for example, R. S. Westfall, "Newton and the Fudge Factor," Science, 179 (1973);
D. T. Whiteside, "Newton's Lunar Theory: From High Hope to Disenchantment,"
Vistas in Astronomy, 19 317-28. But I believe that at least we can say that Newton's
"logic of justification," in contrast with his "logic of discovery," was entirely at one
with principles argued by Locke and widely accepted amongst the early members
of the Royal Society.

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