{"id":829,"date":"2011-02-09T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/?p=829"},"modified":"2012-09-25T02:07:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T14:07:07","slug":"newton%e2%80%99s-queries-are-not-hypotheses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/newton%e2%80%99s-queries-are-not-hypotheses\/","title":{"rendered":"Newton\u2019s Early Queries are not Hypotheses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kirsten Walsh writes&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In an <a title=\"Does newton feign a hypothesis\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/2010\/10\/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis\/\" target=\"_blank\">earlier post<\/a> I demonstrated that, in his early optical papers, Newton is working with a clear distinction between theory and hypothesis.\u00a0 Newton takes a strong anti-hypothetical stance, giving theories higher epistemic status than hypotheses.\u00a0 Newton&#8217;s corpuscular hypothesis appears to challenge his commitment to this anti-hypothetical position.\u00a0 Today I will discuss a second challenge to this anti-hypotheticalism: Newton&#8217;s use of queries.<\/p>\n<p>Newton\u2019s queries have often been interpreted as hypotheses-in-disguise.\u00a0 But in his early optical papers, Newton\u2019s queries are not hypotheses.\u00a0 In fact, he is building on the method of queries prescribed by <a title=\"Francis Bacon\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Francis_Bacon\" target=\"_blank\">Francis Bacon<\/a>, for whom assembling queries is a specific step in the acquisition and development of natural philosophical knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>To begin, what is Newton\u2019s method of queries?\u00a0 In a <a title=\"Newton's Queries\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk\/texts\/images.php?id=NATP00014\" target=\"_blank\">letter to Oldenburg<\/a>, Newton explains that<\/p>\n<ul>\u201cthe proper Method for inquiring after the properties of things is to deduce them from Experiments.\u201d<\/ul>\n<p>Having obtained a theory in this way, one should proceed as follows: (1) specify queries that suggest experiments that will test the theory; and (2) carry out those experiments.<\/p>\n<p>He then lists eight queries relating to his theory of light and colours, e.g.:<\/p>\n<ol>\u201c4.\u00a0Whether the colour of any sort of rays apart may be changed by refraction?<br \/>\n\u201c5.\u00a0Whether colours by coalescing do really change one another to produce a new colour, or produce it by mixing onely?\u201d<\/ol>\n<p>He ends the letter, saying:<\/p>\n<ol>\u201cTo determin by experiments these &amp; such like Queries which involve the propounded Theory seemes the most proper &amp; direct way to a conclusion.\u00a0 And therefore I could wish all objections were suspended, taken from Hypotheses or any other Heads than these two; Of showing the insufficiency of experiments to determin these Queries or prove any other parts of my Theory, by assigning the flaws &amp; defects in my Conclusions drawn from them; Or of producing other Experiments which directly contradict me, if any such may seem to occur.\u00a0 For if the Experiments, which I urge be defective it cannot be difficult to show the defects, but if valid, then by proving the Theory they must render all other Objections invalid.\u201d<\/ol>\n<p>While Newton\u2019s method of queries is experimental, it does not appear to be strictly Baconian.\u00a0 For the Baconian-experimental philosopher, queries serve \u201cto provoke and stimulate further inquiry\u201d.\u00a0 Thus, for the Baconian-experimental philosopher, queries are part of the process of discovery.\u00a0 However, for Newton, queries serve to test the theory and to answer criticisms.\u00a0 Thus, they are part of the process of justification.<\/p>\n<p>Newton uses queries to identify points of difference between his theory and its opponents.\u00a0 For example, in a <a title=\"Letter to Hooke\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk\/texts\/images.php?id=NATP00028\" target=\"_blank\">letter to Hooke<\/a> he writes:<\/p>\n<ol>\u201cI shall now in the last place proceed to abstract the difficulties involved in Mr Hooks discourse, &amp; without having regard to any Hypothesis consider them in general termes.\u00a0 And they may be reduced to these three <em>Queries<\/em>.\u00a0 [1] Whether the unequal refractions made without respect to any inequality of incidence, be caused by the different refrangibility of several rays, or by the splitting breaking or dissipating the same ray into diverging parts; [2] Whether there be more then two sorts of colours; &amp; [3] whether whitenesse be a mixture of all colours.\u201d<\/ol>\n<p>And in a letter to Huygens, Newton says:<\/p>\n<ol>\u201cMeane time since M. Hu[y]gens seems to allow that white is a composition of two colours at least if not of more; give me leave to rejoyn these Qu\u00e6res.<br \/>\n\u201c1.\u00a0Whether the whiteness of the suns light be compounded of the like colours?<br \/>\n\u201c2. Whether the colours that emerg by refracting that light be those component colours separated by the different refrangibility of the rays in which they inhere?\u201d<\/ol>\n<p>In both cases, Newton is using queries to steer the debate towards claims that can be tested and resolved by experiment.\u00a0 On both occasions, Newton devotes a considerable amount of space to discussing the experiments that might determine these queries.<\/p>\n<p>These early queries are not hypotheses.\u00a0 Rather, they are empirical questions that may be resolved by experiment.\u00a0 This is not merely a matter of semantics.  In the <a title=\"Letter to Hooke - page 5094\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk\/texts\/images.php?id=NATP00028&amp;page=5094\" target=\"_blank\">same letter to Hooke<\/a>, Newton demonstrates this by distinguishing between <em>philosophical<\/em> queries and <em>hypothetical<\/em> queries.\u00a0 A philosophical query is one that can be determined by experiment, a hypothetical query cannot.\u00a0 Newton argues that philosophical queries are the only acceptable queries.\u00a0 He equates hypothetical queries with begging the question.<\/p>\n<p>In his <a title=\"Opticks 1718\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk\/view\/texts\/normalized\/NATP00051\" target=\"_blank\">later work<\/a>, Newton\u2019s queries become increasingly speculative, suggesting that they function as <em>de facto <\/em>hypotheses.\u00a0 Does Newton ultimately reject his early \u2018method of queries\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>Next Monday we&#8217;ll have a guest post from Greg Dawes on Galileo and the Experimental Philosophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirsten Walsh writes&#8230; In an earlier post I demonstrated that, in his early optical papers, Newton is working with a clear distinction between theory and hypothesis.\u00a0 Newton takes a strong anti-hypothetical stance, giving theories higher epistemic status than hypotheses.\u00a0 Newton&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4582,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[289,359,224,348,238],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideas","tag-baconian","tag-hypothesis","tag-newton","tag-optics","tag-queries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4582"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}