Abstract In his “‘From the Phenomena of Motions to the Forces of Nature’: Hypothesis or Deduction?” of 1990 Howard Stein reinvigorated a centuries-old dispute over whether Newton had derived his law of gravity from phenomena. More specifically, Stein – like such notables before him as Euler – challenged whether any phenomenon involving gravity served as a basis for Newton inferring that his third law of motion applies to gravity, and with it for inferring that the mass of the attracting body belongs in the numerator of the law. Stein ends up conjecturing that Newton's conception of forces of nature as forces of interaction “was actually developed by Newton at the same time that he was discovering the law of gravitation.” This paper assesses this conjecture by examining the manuscripts – including deletions and insertions – that we have from 1685, the year during which the theory of gravity emerged and the Principia took shape. The conclusion is not merely that the manuscript evidence supports Stein's conjecture, but more significantly that the driving consideration behind both the Newtonian conception of forces of nature as forces of interaction and the inclusion of the mass of the attracting body in the numerator of the law was that the mass of the attracted body, as inferred from phenomena, must be included in the numerator – that is, the phenomena establishing that gravitational forces, unlike any other kind of forces, somehow “proportion themselves” to the individual bodies on which they act.

中文翻译：

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1685年的牛顿分子：怀孕的一年

摘要在他的“从运动现象到自然力量：假说还是演绎？”中 1990年，霍华德·斯坦因（Howard Stein）重振了一个关于牛顿是否从现象中得出引力定律的争论。更具体地说，斯坦因-像欧拉之前的著名人物一样-质疑是否存在任何涉及重力的现象，以此作为牛顿推论其第三运动定律适用于引力的基础，并以此推论引力体的质量属于分子的分子。斯坦因最终推测，牛顿将自然力作为相互作用力的概念“实际上是牛顿在发现引力定律的同时发展起来的”。“本文通过检查我们自1685年以来的手稿（包括删除和插入）来评估这种猜想，这一年正是引力理论出现和原理形成的那一年。结论不仅是手稿证据支持斯坦的猜想，而且更重要的是，牛顿主义将自然力视为相互作用力以及将吸引体的质量包含在法律分子中的驱动考虑是从现象推断出的被吸引物体的质量必须包含在分子中-也就是说，现象确定了引力不同于任何其他类型的力，以某种方式“将自身”分配给它们所作用的单个物体。在这一年中，引力论出现并形成了原理。结论不仅是手稿证据支持斯坦的猜想，而且更重要的是，牛顿主义将自然力视为相互作用力以及将吸引体的质量包含在法律分子中的驱动考虑是从现象推断出的被吸引物体的质量必须包含在分子中-也就是说，现象确定了引力不同于任何其他类型的力，以某种方式“将自身”分配给它们所作用的单个物体。在这一年中，引力论出现并形成了原理。结论不仅是手稿证据支持斯坦的猜想，而且更重要的是，牛顿主义将自然力视为相互作用力以及将吸引体的质量包含在法律分子中的驱动考虑是从现象推断出的被吸引物体的质量必须包含在分子中-也就是说，现象确定了引力不同于任何其他类型的力，以某种方式“将自身”分配给它们所作用的单个物体。