Newton suppressed magical and alchemical ideas to promote a mechanical view of nature.

Evidence

In a 1972 article, entitled “How Sir Isaac Newton Helped Restore Law ‘n’ Order to the West” and a later article called “Newton’s Inside Out” (1981), Kubrin explored the role that Newton played in suppressing magical and alchemical ideas in society and in his own mind and promoting the mechanical view of nature. My work on Leibniz and David’s work on Newton provided grist for an emerging analysis of the rise of modern science in which a world of living, vital forces gave way to a dead mechanical system that supported the new capitalist tendencies of early modern society. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 35

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Newton privately rejected his own mechanistic system as partial truth. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 1045; Newtonian science shaped a mechanical worldview of human reason — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 22

Broader Connections

• Newton privately rejected his own mechanistic system as partial truth. #qualifies (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 1045
• Newtonian science shaped a mechanical worldview of human reason #expands (0.80) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 22