Event / publication / experimentRootsc. 1669

Newton's alchemical work

This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute. Method

For everyone

Newton, one of the founders of modern physics, secretly studied alchemy for about thirty years and left more than a million words of notes on it. When these manuscripts were auctioned in 1936, the economist Keynes called Newton "not the first of the age of reason, but the last of the magicians". Historians debate how far this work influenced Newton's physics.

For specialists

Newton's alchemical notes include reading summaries, laboratory records and his own texts such as "Praxis". Dobbs argued that alchemical ideas of active principles and action at a distance influenced his understanding of gravity; Newman studies Newton's alchemy as part of the experimental "chymistry" of the day. Newton's manuscripts are now digitally accessible through the Newton Project.

Claims

Newton's alchemical studies were an integral part of his natural philosophy.^[1][2][3]

Positions

Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs: Alchemical ideas shaped Newton's understanding of the active principles of matter and of gravity.^[1]
William R. Newman: Newton's alchemy was not mystical but a search for an experimental theory of matter, intertwined with the chemistry of the time.^[2]

Connections

Parent

Alchemy

Newton's Principia

Show in tree →

Sources

BookDobbs, B. J. T. (1975). The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy, or 'The Hunting of the Greene Lyon'. Cambridge University Press
BookNewman, W. R. (2019). Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire". Princeton University Press
WebThe Newton Project. University of Oxfordnewtonproject.ox.ac.uk archive

Search the literature

Look for scholarly work on this topic in other indexes:

Google Scholar ↗Semantic Scholar ↗BASE ↗CORE ↗JSTOR ↗DergiPark ↗

Cite this page

APA

Athena contributors. (2026). Newton's alchemical work. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/newton-simya/

BibTeX

@misc{athena_newton_simya,
  title        = {Newton's alchemical work},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/newton-simya/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 27, 2026 · Page history

✎ Suggest a correction