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Full Idea
Newton's principle of inertia implies a rejection of the Aristotelian idea of natural states to which things naturally return.
Gist of Idea
Inertia rejects the Aristotelian idea of things having natural states, to which they return
Source
report of Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687]) by Peter Alexander - Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles 02.3
Book Ref
Alexander,Peter: 'Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles' [CUP 1985], p.57
A Reaction
I think we can safely say that Aristotle was wrong about this. Aristotle made too much (such as the gravity acting on a thing) intrinsic to the bodies, when the whole context must be seen.
| 24064 | If something is pushed, it pushes back [Aristotle] |
| 19673 | Galileo mathematised movement, and revealed its invariable component - acceleration [Galileo, by Meillassoux] |
| 20964 | Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion' [Descartes, by Papineau] |
| 20968 | Newton's Third Law implies the conservation of momentum [Newton, by Papineau] |
| 15958 | Inertia rejects the Aristotelian idea of things having natural states, to which they return [Newton, by Alexander,P] |
| 17017 | 1: Bodies rest, or move in straight lines, unless acted on by forces [Newton] |
| 17019 | 3: All actions of bodies have an equal and opposite reaction [Newton] |
| 17018 | 2: Change of motion is proportional to the force [Newton] |
| 22173 | Galileo refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavier objects fall faster [Okasha] |
| 22618 | In modern physics the first and second laws of motion (unlike the third) fail at extremes [Ingthorsson] |