Full Idea
Newton allowed forces other than impact. All the earlier proponents of 'mechanical philosophy' took it as given that all physical action is by contact. ...He thought of 'impressed force' - disembodied entities acting from outside a body.
Gist of Idea
Newton introduced forces other than by contact
Source
report of Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 3
Book Reference
Papineau,David: 'Thinking about Consciousness' [OUP 2004], p.237
A Reaction
This is 'action at a distance', which was as bewildering then as quantum theory is now. Newton had a divinity to impose laws of nature from the outside. In some ways we have moved back to the old view, with the actions of bosons and fields.