Reid's adaptation and radicalization of Newton's natural philosophy (Thomas Reid)

For Thomas Reid, Isaac Newton's scientific methodology in natural philosophy was a source of inspiration for philosophical methodology in general. I shall look at how Reid adapted Newton's views on methodology in natural philosophy. We shall see that Reid radicalized Newton's methodology (especially his view on causal explanation) and, thereby, begins to pave the way for the positivist movement, of which the origin is traditionally associated with the Frenchman Auguste Comte. In the Reidian adaptation of Newtonianism, we can already notice the beginnings of the anticausal trend that would become so popular in the age of positivism. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.