Beschreibung:

NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). Autograph manuscript draft for the 'Scholium generale' of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica , n.p. [London], n.d. [late February, 1713], two lines in Latin, 'Et hypotheses non fingo ...', autograph cancellations and revisions, together with autograph arithmetical calculations, which continue on verso, on address leaf of a letter to Newton as 'Warden, Master & Worker and Comptroller of His Majesties Mint', one leaf, irregularly cropped, approximately 195 x 253mm (light soiling, three small worm holes). APPARENTLY THE EARLIEST FORMULATION OF PERHAPS NEWTON'S MOST FAMOUS DICTUM; UNPUBLISHED AND UNRECORDED 'And I do not fabricate hypotheses [Et hypotheses non fingo]. Whatever is not deduced from phenomena is a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical or of any other kind, I follow not at all. It is enough that [gravity really exists...]' The draft is an important rephrasing of one of the most critical passages in the general scholium to the Principia , in which Newton, in discussing the existence of universal gravitation, considers the question of its cause - in the published version: 'I have not yet been able to deduce from phenomena the reason for these properties of gravity, and I fabricate no hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from phenomena should be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses [...] have no place in experimental philosophy'. The passage has occasioned as much controversy as any other in Newton's works. Interpretation depends to some extent on the translation of the word 'fingo', which early translators rendered as 'frame' or 'make'; Newton's own use of the word elsewhere however carries the stronger pejorative sense of 'feign' or 'fabricate'. The modern consensus is that it cannot be argued that Newton was opposed to the use of hypotheses as such - indeed hypotheses are frequently employed within the Principia itself. The primary import of the phrase may have been as a disclaimer of any public involvment in the theological issues behind the question of the causes of gravity (Newton's markedly unorthodox religious principles made him consistently reluctant to enter into such discussions). Newton's return to the phrase in his Opticks ('the main business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phaenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects'), however, makes it clear that in the more emphatic phrasing he adopted for the first time in this redrafting, the passage served a further purpose: it was to be a general statement of his belief in the principle of argument by induction from phenomena, rather than by construction from hypotheses, a principle which underlay the entire late 17th-century scientific revolution. The scholium generale, or general commentary, of Book III of the Principia was introduced only in the second edition of 1713. There are five known autograph drafts of the present section, of varying extent; all are in the Portsmouth Collection in the University of Cambridge Library. Early versions of the passage read 'et hypotheses [...] non sequor' (and I do not follow hypotheses) and 'Nam hypotheses [...] fugio' (For I flee from hypotheses). The present draft, scribbled on a scrap of paper, evidently preceeds the fifth draft in the Portsmouth Collection, and represents the crystallisation of one of Newton's most famous phrases, and almost a statement of his scientific creed. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO THE PRINCIPIA ARE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE AT AUCTION.