In this paper, I discuss Newton's conception of body in De gravitatione and its relation to the legitimacy of action at a distance. Howard Stein has argued that such a conception privileges contact over distant action: by dint of being impenetrable, bodies must necessarily act through contact; yet there is no analogous property of which action at a distance is a consequence. This paper presents a challenge to Stein's reading. I begin by arguing that impenetrability cannot imply action through contact because such an implication hinges on one's laws of motion in three senses: it must be physically possible for contact to occur, the laws must make coherent the notion of a trajectory from which a body deviates, and the necessity of introducing collision dynamics renders impenetrability otiose. I then turn to a close reading of De gravitatione and consider whether Newton himself sees his account of body as establishing contact action as prior to distant action in any sense. Although Newton did see impenetrability as rendering bodily action intelligible, ample room remains for action at a distance once one takes into account certain textual ambiguities and the provisional character of the narrative. By way of substantiating this reading and answering an objection of Stein's, I pivot to Newton's remarks concerning the nature of gravity in his correspondence with Bentley. Although Newton is often held to reject essential gravity as being in conflict with his metaphysical commitments, I offer a more austere reading on which Newton is decrying a kind of action that is unmediated, or alleged to take place without a cause. By contrast, Newton carves out a place for action at a distance mediated by an immaterial agent as a perfectly acceptable explanation of natural phenomena.

在本文中，我将讨论牛顿在《引力论》中的身体概念及其与远距离作用合法性的关系。霍华德·斯坦（Howard Stein）辩称，这样的概念使接触优先于遥远的行动：由于没有渗透力，身体必须通过接触来行动；但是，并没有类似的结果表明在远处产生哪个动作。本文对斯坦因的阅读提出了挑战。首先，我要论证的是，不可渗透性不能暗示通过接触来行动，因为这种暗示在三个意义上取决于一个人的运动定律：必须在物理上可能发生接触，定律必须使身体偏离的轨迹概念保持连贯性。 ，并且引入碰撞动力学的必要性使不可渗透性变得整洁。然后，我仔细阅读德万有引力，并思考牛顿本人是否认为自己的身体在任何意义上都比远距离动作先建立了接触动作。尽管牛顿确实认为不可穿透性可以使身体动作变得可理解，但是一旦人们考虑到某些文本上的歧义和叙述的临时性，一定距离后仍有足够的行动空间。通过证实这一读物并回答斯坦因的反对，我转向牛顿关于他与本特利的往来中有关引力性质的论述。尽管牛顿经常被认为拒绝基本引力与他的形而上学承诺相抵触，但我提供了更为严厉的解读，即牛顿谴责一种未经调解或据称无故采取的行动。相比之下，