{"id":836,"date":"2009-08-06T11:14:05","date_gmt":"2009-08-06T11:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=836"},"modified":"2009-08-06T11:14:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-06T11:14:05","slug":"newton-and-scientific-publication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/newton-and-scientific-publication\/","title":{"rendered":"Newton and scientific publication"},"content":{"rendered":"

While on the subject of Isaac Newton<\/a>, here are several statements by\u00a0historian Scott Mandelbrote on Newton’s attitude to the public dissemination of his work.\u00a0 The more we know of Newton, the less we should consider him a scientist in the modern meaning of the word.<\/p>\n

His [theological investigation] was a voyage of personal discovery; even the Principia required Halley’s exertions as a midwife to bring them to light.\u00a0 Newton might share his\u00a0religious opinions with other members of the remnant, as he did in his letters to Locke, but he worried about the consequences of their wider dissemination:\u00a0 ‘I was of opinion my papers had lain\u00a0still & am sorry to heare there is news about them.\u00a0 Let me entreat you to stop their translation & impression so soon as \u00a0you can for I designe to suppress them.’\u00a0 Newton’s concern may have reflected fear of being discovered to hold unorthodox \u00a0opinions, but it was also the product of religious motives.\u00a0 Not everyone could be expected to comprehend ‘strong meat’, which was \u00a0intended for personal consumption, and which might be wasted on\u00a0others.” (p.299)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His [Newton’s] theology pervaded his alchemy, in his analysis of the Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus, and in turn \u00a0his alchemy suggested to him how matter might be understood physically.\u00a0 A true understanding of the uses of language enabled \u00a0Newton to introduce astronomical calculation into his chronological writings, and to complete his mathematical\u00a0arguments with theological references:
\n[pagebreak]
\n. . . .
\nMathematics was God’s language; the language of the prophets communicated God’s purposes and ‘times’ to men.\u00a0 Newton felt it was his duty to understand and to reconcile the two, to decipher the hieroglyphs which corrupted religion and learning had obscured.\u00a0\u00a0 The problems of mathematics ended in the solutions of divine majesty, and mathematical language solved the theological problem of describing Newton’s Arian interpretation of the relations within the Trinity:
\n. . .
\nNewton’s natural philosophical and theological discoveries removed the obscurities from divine language, in the books of nature and of scripture.\u00a0 In the life of the true believer, the two could not be separated.\u00a0 But most had to be content with the milk for babes, because Newton’s own language was beyond them.” (pp. 300-301).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reference:<\/em>
\nScott Mandelbrote [1993]:\u00a0 ‘A dute of the greatest moment’: Isaac Newton and the writing of biblical criticism. British Journal of the History of Science<\/em>, 26:\u00a0 281-302.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While on the subject of Isaac Newton, here are several statements by\u00a0historian Scott Mandelbrote on Newton’s attitude to the public dissemination of his work.\u00a0 The more we know of Newton, the less we should consider him a scientist in the modern meaning of the word. His [theological investigation] was a voyage of personal discovery; even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,50,51,67,71,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-mathematics","category-matherati","category-prophecy","category-religion","category-science","p1","y2009","m08","d06","h11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}