(1643-1727)
Home: Grantham, England
School: Newtonian or "classic" Physics - a paradigm shift for physics that revolutionized thought in all fields of inquiry and that would not be improved upon until quantum physics in the 20th century, and, even then, it would remain the basis for understanding the macro-level world.
Rational/Empirical Rational Empiricist
Influence: Awesome. Incredible. Astonishing. Perhaps the greatest scientist in history. His discoveries and theories laid the foundation not just for physics, but for nearly all branches of organized thought. He revolutionized philosophy in manners so profound that they have entered society's unconsciousness.
Greatest achievement(s):Glorification of Scientific Thought. Strengthening the idea that the universe was knowable. Principles of conservation of motion (although it was Leibnitz who first coined the concept "energy") And, to the eternal consternation of students everywhere -Calculus (w/ Leibnitz). His three laws of motion obliterated the errors of the past and changed the way man viewed the world.
Significant works: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) - the single most important scientific text in the history of science. (Are you getting the idea that this is a rather significant person yet?) This text treated nature as a complicated machine, set in motion by God, but comprehendable by man. Newton's first achievement was in mathematics. (Calculus) which allowed him to understand the universe at a level above that of Greek geometry. Fearful of criticism, Newton kept his discovery to himself - nearly losing credit for the discovery. In his old age, he fought vigorously to gain the credit for his discovery.
The whole burden of philosophy seems to consist in this--from the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature and then from these forces to explain their nature.
The Principia
Newton established the modern science of dynamics by formulating his three laws of motion. Newton applied these laws to Kepler's laws of orbital motion and derived the law of universal gravitation - which explains that all bodies in space and on earth are affected by a force called gravity. By postulating through mathematics that simple, observable universal forces existed, Newton obliterated the ignorant bullshit of Aristotle's teleological "explanations" of matter and illustrated that science could be used to know the world. He single handedly moved human thought out of the stone age and into modernity.
Despite Newton's great achievements, he clearly realized how much more the field of science had to discover, as evidenced by the following passage...
I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Memoirs of Newton, vol. 2, ch. 27 (ed. by David Brewster, 1855).
While Newton's discovery was brilliant, it is intriguing to point out that he failed to recognize the existence of "energy" - his laws were of conservation of motion, not energy. It would be Leibniz who would discover this strange new "force" which he would label "Living energy". Newton also failed to recognize that his view of the universe as a static model was an impossibility - his own discovery of gravity should have led him to realize that a static universe would collapse into a central mass, no matter its size.
However, this is all hindsight. Newton's discoveries were a revolution on thought and Newton's view's towards physics would stand for centuries until the advent of quantum physics.
Negatives to Newtons' work
Although Newton's work is quite complicated, and his mathematical formulas require a good working knowldege of calculus, the resulting theory actually makes for a very simple and comforting universe. For example, Newton believed that time was like an arrow; once fired, it soared in a straight, undeviating line. One second on the earth was one second on Mars. Clocks scattered throughout the universe beat at the same rate. Another example would be that Newton imagined that his theory applied to all phenomena in the universe. We now know that the passage of time is relative to the observer.
Lastly, the works of Newton created scientfic hubris - after Newton, scientists and philosophers to began to assume that knowing the universe was not all that complex a task. In a manner akin to a once adaptive behavior becoming maladaptive, this was at first helpful, in that it energized people to try and explain the world. However, as time went on, this assumption that the universe was easy to know led to the excessive smugness of some of the positivists.
Sir Isaac Newton on the bible.
Newton on Human Sensation
In trying to explain how colors occur, Newton arrived at the idea that sunlight is a heterogeneous blend of different rays-each representing a different color-and that it is reflection and refraction that causes colors to appear by separating the blend into its components. Newton demonstrated his theory of colors empirically by passing a beam of sunlight through a type of prism, which split the beam into separate colors. This new understanding of sensation of light revolutionized philosophical and scientific thought.
The Principia is He was the scientific/political figure.
The book was written in the math of the ancient greeks - geometry
Newton was known to have laughed only one time in his life - when asked of what value what geometry was.
The Principia presented a worldview based not on philosophical rumination, but upon empirical observation and experiment.
Where past philosophers could only make hopeful guesses about the nature of their world,
Newton, while sitting in the parlor of his home, was able to know with precision the weight of the earth, and the paths of the planets in the solar system.
In his old age, he revealed his correspondences with liebniz, proving the Newton not only created calculus, but that Liebniz might well have stolen the idea.
Voltaire idolized him. When he died, he was buried with royalty at bedminster abby
God said newton be, and all was light
the 18th century would feature a focus, a fascination, with science, order and knowledge