ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have shown that Locke and Newton considered the rise of experimental philosophy as a turning point in the philosophical study of the physical world. They both conceived of causality as a relation between observable properties, and claimed, accordingly, that causal relations could be properly represented by statements of fact. Both professed that the aim of experimental philosophy was the discovery of these facts. Moreover, they both espoused a theocentric view of causality as an expression of God’s government. Experimental philosophy thus offered an alternative to peripatetic and mechanistic explications of the nature of things that also complemented the study of God’s revelations in the scriptures.
