Оглавление
Michael White. Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
Isaac Newton. The Last Sorcerer. Michael White
Table of Contents
Introduction. Truth Revealed
Chapter 1 Desertion
Chapter 2 The Changing View of Matter and Energy
Chapter 3 Academia
Chapter 4 Astronomy and Mathematics Before Newton
Chapter 5 A Toe in the Water
Chapter 6 The Search for the Philosophers’Stone
Chapter 7 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Chapter 8 Feuds
Chapter 9 To the Principia
Chapter 10 Breakdown
Chapter 11 Metamorphosis
Chapter 12 Old Men’s Battles
Chapter 13 A Question of Priority
Chapter 14 Joining the Ancients
References
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Truth Revealed
Chapter 1: Desertion
Chapter 2: The Changing View of Matter and Energy
Chapter 3: Academia
Chapter 4: Astronomy and Mathematics Before Newton
Chapter 5: A Toe in the Water
Chapter 6: The Search for the Philosophers’ Stone
Chapter 7: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Chapter 8: Feuds
Chapter 9: To the Principia
Chapter 10: Breakdown
Chapter 11: Metamorphosis
Chapter 12: Old Men’s Battles
Chapter 13: A Question of Priority
Chapter 14: Joining the Ancients
Index
Also by Michael White
Copyright
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
To Bill Hamilton: for getting the ball rolling
Title Page
.....
At first, school was of little interest to Isaac, as is shown by his lacklustre and completely unexceptional academic status. He was quick to learn but was also a natural autodidact, ignored by most of his teachers and disliked by the other boys. Pupils were expected to learn the core curriculum of classical languages and scriptural studies parrot-fashion. It all required little imagination and offered no inspiration for inquisitiveness. It is, to the modern mind, astonishing that Newton had no formal mathematical training until he entered Cambridge (and even then mathematics was not part of the standard curriculum during his first years as an undergraduate). To compensate for this dull fare, Isaac first read the books handed down to him by his stepfather and later those he found in the library of St Wulfram’s church in Grantham – a long, narrow room above the church porch. Most of these texts were dry fodder indeed: theological tracts and Puritan propaganda that Newton was encouraged to read by a Puritan divine and lecturer at the school named John Angell.
These theology books and the encouragement of Angell led Newton into a religious doctrine he maintained for the rest of his life, but they did not provide the intellectual meat he needed. Fortunately, other books came his way. The most important in leading him to scientific inquiry was The Mysteries of Nature and Art by John Bate, which Isaac discovered when he was about thirteen. He was totally captivated by it and spent 21/2d. on an exercise book into which he copied out long passages.
.....
