Newton’s Gift (Magill’s Literary Annual 2001)
At a glance:
- Author: David Berlinski
- First Published: 2000
- Type of Work: Biography and science
- Time of Work: 1642-1727
- Setting: England
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Science or scientists, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Seventeenth century, Mathematics or mathematicians, Astronomy or astronomers, Physics or physicists
- Locales: England
No student of Western science, or indeed, Western culture, would challenge the assertion that Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most important figures in the development of Western science. David Berlinski makes a somewhat more expansive, although quite defensible and unoriginal claim. For him, Newton “is the largest figure in the history of western science” and “Newtonian mechanics is not only the first, but the greatest, of scientific theories.” By intermixing an overview of Newton’s life—emphasizing oddity of character over events—with a nontechnical analysis of portions...
[The entire page is 1843 words long]
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