Hypotheses non fingo

Short description: Phrase appearing in a 1713 essay by Isaac Newton

Hypotheses non fingo (Latin for "I frame no hypotheses", or "I contrive no hypotheses") is a phrase used by Isaac Newton in an essay, "General Scholium", which was appended to the second (1713) edition of the Principia.

## Contents

* 1 Original remark
* 2 Later commentary
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Original remark

A 1999 translation of the Principia presents Newton's remark as follows:

> I have not as yet been able to discover the reason for these properties of gravity from phenomena, and I do not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction.[1]

## Later commentary

The 19th-century philosopher of science William Whewell qualified this statement, saying that, "it was by such a use of hypotheses, that both Newton himself and Kepler, on whose discoveries those of Newton were based, made their discoveries". Whewell stated:

> What is requisite is, that the hypothesis should be close to the facts, and not connected with them by other arbitrary and untried facts; and that the philosopher should be ready to resign it as soon as the facts refuse to confirm it.[2]

Later, Imre Lakatos asserted that such a resignation should not be too rushed.[citation needed]

## See also

* Action at a distance
* Primum movens

## References

1. ↑ Isaac Newton (1726). Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, General Scholium. Third edition, page 943 of I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman's 1999 translation, University of California Press ISBN 0-520-08817-4, 974 pages.
2. ↑ Whewell, William (1840). The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. London. p. 438. https://archive.org/stream/philosophyinduc00whewgoog#page/n450/mode/2up.

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Sir Isaac Newton

Publications|

* Fluxions (1671)
* De Motu (1684)
* Principia (1687; writing)
* Opticks (1704)
* Queries (1704)
* Arithmetica (1707)
* De Analysi (1711)

Other writings|

* Quaestiones (1661–65)
* "standing on the shoulders of giants" (1675)
* Notes on the Jewish Temple (c. 1680)
* "General Scholium" (1713; "hypotheses non fingo" )
* Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728)
* Corruptions of Scripture (1754)

Contributions|

* Calculus
* fluxion
* Impact depth
* Inertia
* Newton disc
* Newton polygon
* Newton–Okounkov body
* Newton's reflector
* Newtonian telescope
* Newton scale
* Newton's metal
* Newton's cradle
* Spectrum
* Structural coloration

Newtonianism|

* Bucket argument
* Newton's inequalities
* Newton's law of cooling
* Newton's law of universal gravitation
* post-Newtonian expansion
* parameterized
* gravitational constant
* Newton–Cartan theory
* Schrödinger–Newton equation
* Newton's laws of motion
* Kepler's laws
* Newtonian dynamics
* Newton's method in optimization
* Apollonius's problem
* truncated Newton method
* Gauss–Newton algorithm
* Newton's rings
* Newton's theorem about ovals
* Newton–Pepys problem
* Newtonian potential
* Newtonian fluid
* Classical mechanics
* Newtonian fluid
* Corpuscular theory of light
* Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy
* Newton's notation
* Rotating spheres
* Newton's cannonball
* Newton–Cotes formulas
* Newton's method
* generalized Gauss–Newton method
* Newton fractal
* Newton's identities
* Newton polynomial
* Newton's theorem of revolving orbits
* Newton–Euler equations
* Newton number
* kissing number problem
* Newton's quotient
* Parallelogram of force
* Newton–Puiseux theorem
* Absolute space and time
* Luminiferous aether
* Newtonian series
* table

Personal life|

* Woolsthorpe Manor (birthplace)
* Cranbury Park (home)
* Early life
* Later life
* Religious views
* Occult studies
* Scientific Revolution
* Copernican Revolution

Relations|

* Catherine Barton (niece)
* John Conduitt (nephew-in-law)
* Isaac Barrow (professor)
* William Clarke (mentor)
* Benjamin Pulleyn (tutor)
* John Keill (disciple)
* William Stukeley (friend)
* William Jones (friend)
* Abraham de Moivre (friend)

Depictions|

* Newton by Blake (monotype)
* Newton by Paolozzi (sculpture)

Namesake|

* Isaac Newton Institute
* Isaac Newton Medal
* Isaac Newton Telescope
* Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
* Newton (unit)

Categories|

Category Isaac Newton not found

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