Ignoring Newton's Hints Brought Scientific Chaos
Paul Schroeder
Newton did not accept nor espouse action at a distance, but he couldn't provide a physical description of gravity. A great divergence of thought stems from the clash between Newton's Theory indicating that gravity, subject to the inverse square law, is what retains orbits as opposed to Descartes view that whirlpools and eddies sweep planets around the sun. Had Newton's view of space not prevailed, our sequence of acquiring understanding of the universe would have been different. It is what mankind hasn't done since Newton's time that forms our perspective of space today. We haven't defined gravity.
