...act upon another at a distance through a vacuum without the mediation of anything else . . . is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man, who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty for thinking, can ever fall into. Nor did the prediction of quantum theory sit well with Albert Einstein,...

...the science and even the "laws" and "rules". 119 Opera III, 174. His third letter to Bentley says: "Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws" (IV 438). 120 I, sect. 2 prop. 10, probl. 5. Cf. I sect. 3, prop. II, probl. 6 and prop. 12 f. 121...

...conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an Absurdity, that I believe no NEWTON S HYPOTHESES Man who has in philosophical Matters a competent Faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it.12 Did Newton mean that, after all, gravity was a direct mechanical effect produced...

...anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has...philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws;...

...object can pull another across empty space without the benefit of an intermediary is, in Newton's words, "so great an Absurdity, that I believe no man who...philosophical Matters a competent Faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it." When the balloonist grows similarly disenchanted with that explanation, he surmises...

...argument applies to the principle of local action. Recall that even Newton regards action at a distance as "so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters any competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it".36 Separability and local action are See....

...temptation to fix upon any single such hypothesis in the absence of definitive empirical evidence. "Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws," he writes, "but whether this agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my...

...[particles] contain," should be innate, inherent and essential to Matter ... is to me so great an Absurditv, that I believe no Man who has in philosophical Matters a competent Facultv ot thinking, can ever fall into it. (inDeason I986:l83) For Newton, alt motion and all life...

...discovery of action at a distance, in violation of the basic principles of the mechanical philosophy, as "so great an Absurdity that I believe no Man who has...philosophical matters a competent Faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it." Nonetheless, he was forced to conclude that the Absurdity "does really exist."...

...violation of the basic princi78 Chomsky on Democracy and Education pies of the mechanical philosophy, as "so great an Absurdity that I believe no Man who has...philosophical matters a competent Faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it." Nonetheless, he was forced to conclude that the absurdity "does really exist."...