Special relativity has this in common with Newtonian mechanics: The la — Inertia

"[Any] portion of corporeal matter which moves by itself when an impetus has been impressed on it by any external motive force has a natural tendency to move on a rectilinear, not a curved, path."

"The idea that inertia is an acquired property is old, generally going under the name of “”. According to it, inertia is due to the interaction of bodies with some omnipresent medium. Ideas along this line differ on what the medium is, and on the nature of the interaction. But if indeed such is the origin of inertia, then inertia is not some property of ultimate fundamentality, but can take different forms depending on where we are in parameter space of the body with respect to signposts and boundary stones defined by the characteristics of the medium."

"Second law of mechanics.—All change of matter has an external cause. (Every body remains in its state of rest or motion in the same direction and with the same velocity, if not compelled by an external cause to forsake this state.) Demonstration. (From universal metaphysics the proposition that all change has a cause, is laid at the foundation; here it only remains to be proved of matter, that its change must always have an external cause. ... this cause cannot be internal for matter has no absolutely internal determinations and grounds of determination. ... Observation. This mechanical law can only be called the law of inertia (lex inertiæ)..."

"On the law of inertia (next to that of the permanence of substance) the possibility of a natural science proper entirely rests. The opposite of the first, and therefore the death of all natural philosophy, would be hylozoism. From the same conception of inertia as that of mere lifelessness, it follows... that it does not signify a positive effort to maintain its state. Only living beings can be termed inert in this latter sense, inasmuch as they have a conception of another state, which they dread and strive against with all their might."

"Law I. Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of moving uniformly in a straight line, except in so far as it is made to change that state by external forces. ...the motion of a cannon ball is retarded, but this arises from an action between the projectile and the air which surrounds it, whereby the ball experiences a force in the direction opposite to its relative motion, while the air, pushed forward by an equal force, is itself set in motion... But our conviction of the truth of this law may be greatly strengthened by considering what is involved in a denial of it. ...Let us in the first place suppose the law to be that the velocity diminishes at a certain [extremely slow] rate... The velocity referred to in this hypothetical law can only be the velocity referred to a point absolutely at rest... the point of reference. ...If, when referred to a certain point, the body appears to be moving northward with diminishing velocity, we have only to refer it to another point moving northward with a uniform velocity greater than that of the body, and it will appear to be moving southward with increasing velocity. Hence the hypothetical law is without meaning unless we admit the possibility of defining absolute rest and absolute velocity. Even if we admit this as a possibility, the hypothetical law, if found to be true, might be interpreted, not as a contradiction of Newtons law, but as evidence of the resisting action of some medium in space. To take another case. Suppose the law to be that a body, not acted on by any force, ceases at once to move. This is not only contradicted by experience, but it leads to a definition of absolute rest as the state which a body assumes as soon as it is freed from the action of external forces. It may thus be shown that the denial of Newtons law is in contradiction to the only system of consistent doctrine about space and time which the human mind has been able to form."

"[O]ne of the most interesting aspects in Fabris physics is the wholehearted adoption of the important principle of conservation of rectilinear motion (...CRM) - a direct result of an impetus which... tends to conserve itself in the absence of obstacles or hindrences, and the possibility of motion in a vacuum... CRM is often referred to as "inertia", but this problematic term is both anachronistic and misleading. The word... (...meaning "laziness") was first utilized in a physical sense by Johannes Kepler, to mean a tendency of bodies to come to rest once they are set in motion... It was subsequently used, in a different sense - meaning the reluctance of bodies in rest to be set in motion - by Descartes... and even by Fabri himself. This notion, as... expressed in Newtons first law... could be regarded merely as a "less important aspect of inertia" than in his second law... it is also clear that the classical (or Newtonian) concept cannot be fully expressed and understood without Newtons third law and his concept of force..."