The Trinity of Mass and Newton's Way

Abstract

This monograph studies the idea that there is only a single concept of mass in physics. Notably, this is so not since Albert Einstein, as is the canonical reading, but since Isaac Newton. Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia (1687) introduced mass as a measure of inertia.

Newton then deduced that mass also measures weight.

Newton also proved that this very same inertial mass finds itself at the source of gravitational attraction. Hence, the twentieth-century distinction between inertial, gravitational and gravitating mass may be didactically useful, but does no justice to the legacy of Isaac Newton. The monograph discusses two aspects of why later readers missed the true content of Newton's legacy. Firstly, because of Newton's redactional choices. Secondly, because of the historical and socio-scientific context: the expectations and attitudes of Newton's peers, readers and criticasters. This is done in the context of the history of Western thought, i.e. philosophy.