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Read & copy
“I frame no hypotheses; for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called an hypothesis.”
Meaning & context
Newton distinguishes conclusions inferred from observed phenomena from explanations he regards as unsupported speculation within the methodological argument of the General Scholium.
Source details
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, General Scholium, added to the second edition in 1713; represented by the 1846 Andrew Motte English translation on Wikisource. “I frame no hypotheses” is kept inside Newton’s specific discussion of gravity and experimental philosophy rather than treated as a blanket prohibition on hypotheses in modern science.