Definitions
2. How does Newton characterize matter (mass, body)? How does it differ from Descartes' characterization of matter?
3. What is the "innate force of matter" (vis insita or vis inertiae)? When does it act/ operate?
4. Are there any circular motions that do not involve centripetal force?
5. Why do you think Newton mentions (in Def. V) that, if we could fire a ball fast enough, then it would circle the world indefinitely?
Scholium
6. What is the difference between "true" ("absolute, mathematical") and "apparent" ("relative, common")...
(a) time?
(b) space?
(c) motion?
7. How can we tell which bodies are in absolute motion?
8. What point is Newton attempting to make with the rotating bucket full of water?
Axioms, or Laws of Motion
9. How do Newton's laws differ from Descartes' laws?
10. [optional] How do the Laws as stated in Principia differ from modern textbooks' formulationsof what they call 'Newton's three laws'?
Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy
11. What properties do microscopic bodies have? And how do we humans, who cannot perceive these microscopic bodies directly, find out what these properties are?
12. What's Newton's position on atomism?
13. How does Newton justify his completely universal claim that every bit of matter in the unverse attracts, and is attracted by, every other bit of matter in the universe?
14. Why, according to Newton, is a body's vis inertiae "essential" to it, but its gravity is not?
15. In Rule IV, what is the "argument of induction" (= "propositions collected by general induction from phenomena") -- and how could it "be evaded by hypotheses"?
General Scholium
16. Try to reconstruct at least one of the problems Newton sees with "the hypothesis of vortices" (= Descartes' physics of planetary motion)?
17. What aspects of the solar system cannot be explained by the laws of gravity, according to Newton?
18. What is God's role in the universe? (How is God related to the physical universe?)
19. What are God's characteristics?
20. Does Newton think God is a proper topic for discussion in science (= "natural philosophy")?
21. What, according to Newton, is the cause of gravity?