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Newtonian thought was revolutionary in many aspects. Newton's method of grounding his theories in natural phenomena themselves, and not in philosophical principles already abstracted from reality, was at least somewhat groundbreaking, if not earth shattering. Newton's theories could be proven by experiment, based as they were in the very phenomena explored in the experiments. Newton's theory of gravity revolutionized our understanding of celestial motion, though of course Einstein's theories now provide us with a better understanding. Nonetheless, the concept of universal gravitation (every point of mass in the universe attracts every other point of mass in the universe) was, from my understanding, very revolutionary. The notion that this accounts for celestial motion was also, as far as I know, revolutionary.

In short, Newton contributed a lot of great theories and concepts, thus revolutionizing our understanding of many things, including light, motion, and gravity. But I think there's a lot more than just the ideas themselves involved here- there seems to be a whole way of thinking, a whole method of understanding the world around us. Newton, as stated above, used the phenomena themselves as the basis for theories, and was willing to let any cherished beliefs, if he had them, slide if they disagreed with what he saw (the other leading theory of celestial motion, that of vortices, was so beloved that many tried to keep it alive long after Newton published his Principia).

Once again, I write from my understanding of the issue, something limited and fallible. I am also writing a paper on this right now, which is why I have anything at all to contribute. So please let me know if I am wrong :)

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13y ago

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