January 26      Isaac Newton and Newtonianism – Capstone and Foundation

History of Science – what exactly is it, and what should it study?

“Newton is the hidden end toward which the whole narrative is inexorably drawn, the Final Cause of the Scientific Revolution. Had he not really existed at that time and at that place, perhaps we would have had to invent him. Perhaps in some sense we did invent him, for the periodization and the progressive ideology of the Scientific Revolution created such intractable interpretive problems associated with Newton that one may reasonably argue that our “Newton as Final Cause” is a historical construct bearing little resemblance to the historical record” –

BJT Dobbs, “Newton as Final Cause and First Mover,”1994, pg. 636.

 
I. Newton’s Biography

Important, published, Newton texts – mostly Newton corresponds with others, or writes but does not publish views/theories

1672 – ‘Theory about Light and Colors' published in the Royal Society's journal, Philosophical Transactions (30 Jan./9 Feb.)

1675 - 'Hypothesis' – in Philosophical Transactions – again, related to light/colors/optics

1687 - Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)­ – published in Latin initially

1704 – Opticks – ‘Queries’ published at the end of this volume

1706 – Optice –Latin translation of Opticks

1713 – ‘General Scholium’ within second edition of Principia

 
II. Newton as Capstone – to what?

            Different understandings of the Scientific Revolution

            Epistemology and ontology

Key persons, texts, theories that Newton synthesized

                        1543 – Copernicus, heliocentric astronomy

                        1609 – Kepler, orbits and laws

                        1630 – Galileo, kinematics, dynamics, physics

                        1644 – Descartes, mechanical philosophy and rationalism

From a closed, hierarchical, qualitative cosmos to an open, infinite, quantitative universe governed by the same laws in every place at every time

III. Newton as Foundation – Newtonianism in context

Religion and the Anglican Church

1688 and the links between Newton’s philosophy and politics

Popularizing Newtonianism – texts, public shows, and social spaces

Transmission to the Continent

Newtonianism working in society, economy, and in politics

Newton in 1689

Newton around the time of his knighthood

Newton in 1726

Isaac Newton – by William Blake, 1795

Temple of Solomon, with Newton’s Annotations