To my understanding, Newton was motivated by trying to decode the Bible among other occult studies which he thought would unlock some mystical knowledge of the universe for humanity. So in that respect, he did sort of pursue improving society? Albeit perhaps in a misguided way. But hey, it yielded massive benefits

Fourier and Newton's work was almost entirely of a practical and applicable nature. Fourier's main work for example was on investigating how heat propagated through different materials, with his famous transform being more of a useful biproduct of that work.