In the General Scholium, Newton criticized which philosopher's vortex model?

In the General Scholium, Newton criticized René Descartes’ vortex model of the Solar System. Descartes proposed that swirling vortices of subtle matter carried the planets around the Sun.

Newton’s objection was grounded in the results of the Principia. His theory of universal gravitation explained celestial motion without requiring a material fluid to whirl through space. He also argued that Cartesian vortices could not adequately account for the distinctive motions of comets, which travel through different regions and directions rather than remaining confined to a planetary fluid.

The General Scholium was added to the second edition of the Principia in 1713 and revised for the third edition in 1726. It addressed not only Descartes’ natural philosophy but also criticism of Newton’s account of gravity and his scientific method. The famous phrase “hypotheses non fingo,” usually translated as “I frame no hypotheses,” appears in this essay.

Newton did not reject every mechanical explanation associated with seventeenth-century science, but he rejected Cartesian corpuscles and vortices as an adequate account of the heavens. Descartes is therefore the canonical answer.