The Legacy of Newton in Eighteenth-Century Writing

This thesis operates at the junction between the study of literature and the history of science to examine two questions. The first is to determine the influence of the figure and ideas of Isaac Newton in eighteenth-century writing, while the second is that of how writers in the period reflected on the proposition that man could produce certain knowledge in the way Newton was believed to have done with natural phenomena. This thesis argues that these two questions are interlinked and should be addressed by investigating the dissemination of ‘Newtonianism’, a complex historical phenomenon better understood in two complementary ways. Firstly, Newtonianism consists of an extensive and variegated body of commentaries on Newton produced throughout the century and focused on both his figure and the ideas expressed in his texts, mainly Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) and Opticks (1704). Secondly, Newtonianism is meant as a climate of opinion ensued from the body of commentaries on Newton and characterised by a new confidence in the ability of man to produce knowledge with a certainty akin to that of Newton in both nature and other spheres, including that of human nature. Together, these two facets of Newtonianism constitute the legacy of Newton referred to in the title of this thesis. The main argument made in this thesis is that the texts written by Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, David Hume, Tobias Smollett and It-Narrative writers endorsed, contested or dramatized the confidence to know with certainty that was disseminated by Newtonianism.