By Isaac Newton - Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings

by Isaac Newton

Andrew Janiak examines Newton's philosophical positions and his relations to canonical figures in early modern philosophy through Newton's principal philosophical writings. Janiak's study includes excerpts from the Principia and the Opticks, Newton's famous correspondence with Boyle and with Bentley, and his equally significant correspondence with Leibniz, often ignored in favor of Leibniz's later debate with Samuel Clarke. (Newton's exchanges with Leibniz place their different understandings of natural philosophy in sharp relief.)

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Nonfiction, Physics, 17th Century, History, Mathematics

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Sir Isaac Newton, FRS , was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.

In mechanics, Newton enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. In optics, he invented the reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into a visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.

In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed the so-called "Newton's method" for approximating the zeroes of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.

Newton was also highly religious (though unorthodox), producing more work on Biblical hermeneutics than the natural science he is remembered for today.

In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed much more influential than Albert Einstein.

Reviews

[Caitlin]

rating this seems irrelevant. it killed my brain.

[Briana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not fun. I can do math, I can do philosophy, I can do science, but not all at the same time. Once again, I have learned that I am a fundamentally immature person. As well as an easily distracted one.

[حملة الملحقية · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Lucy Samuelsen]

de gravitatione and principia