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Newton's General Scholium
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The General Scholium
to Isaac Newton's Principia
The General Scholium, added to the Principia in 1713, is probably Newton's most famous writing. It is also one of the least understood. This is partly because Newton constructed it much like a Russian doll, with some of the more controversial aspects hidden within layers of more accessible meaning. The recent availability of Newton's private manuscripts has helped scholars decipher elements of this document through the comparison of the oblique language of the General Scholium with the much less guarded wording of his private writings. In this text, Newton not only challenges the natural philosophy of Descartes, counters criticism levelled against him by Leibniz and appeals for universal gravitation and an inductive method, but he embeds a subversive attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, which he believed was a fourth-century corruption of Christianity. In his General Scholium, Newton appeals for a humble and inductive approach both in natural philosophy and religion. In this powerful manifesto of his goals in natural philosophy and theology, Newton also reveals his commitments to a dual reformation in these two spheres — spheres Newton believed were thoroughly bound together.
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