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<blockquote>I have not as yet been able to deduce from phenomena the reason for these properties of gravity, and I do not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this experimental philosophy, propositions are deduced from the phenomena and are made general by induction. The impenetrability, mobility, and impetus of bodies and the laws of motion and law of gravity have been found by this method. And it is enough that gravity should really exist and should act according to the laws that we have set forth and should suffice for all the motions of the heavenly bodies and of our sea.[[CiteRef::Newton (1999)| p. 276]]</blockquote>
Newton called his method the '''experimental philosophy''', because theories about the behavior of empirical objects can only be refuted via experimental procedures.[[CiteRef::Smith (2002)]] He expressed the core beliefs from which he derived his method in a set of four “rules for the study of natural philosophy,” which he stated in book III of The ''Principia'' as follows:
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