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Full Idea
That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter ...is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it.
Gist of Idea
That gravity should be innate and essential to matter is absurd
Source
Isaac Newton (Letters to Bentley [1692], 1693.02.25)
Book Ref
Newton,Isaac: 'Philosophical Writings' [CUP 2004], p.102
A Reaction
He is replying to some sermons, and he pays vague lip service to a possible divine force. Nevertheless, this is thoroughgoing anti-essentialism, and he talks of external 'laws' in the next sentence. Newton still sought the cause of gravity.
Related Idea
Idea 13198 Gravity is within matter because of its structure, and it can be explained. [Leibniz]
| 15863 | The principles of my treatise are designed to fit with a belief in God [Newton] |
| 13150 | The motions of the planets could only derive from an intelligent agent [Newton] |
| 8340 | I do not pretend to know the cause of gravity [Newton] |
| 13151 | Not all infinites are equal [Newton] |
| 13152 | We can talk of 'innumerable number', about the infinite points on a line [Newton] |
| 12178 | That gravity should be innate and essential to matter is absurd [Newton] |