I consider philosophy rather than arts and write not concerning manual but natural powers, and consider chiefly those things which relate to gravity, levity, elastic force, the resistance of fluids, and the like forces, whether attractive or impulsive; and therefore I offer this work as the mathematical principles of philosophy.In the third book I give an example of this in the explication of the System of the World. I derive from celestial phenomena the forces of gravity with which bodies tend to the sun and other planets.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1934.

Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherless and unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he was so renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for a subject whose achievements were in the realm of the intellect. During the years he was an irascible presence at Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton imagined properties of nature and gave them names—mass, gravity, velocity—things our science now takes for granted. Inspired by Aristotle, spurred on by Galileo’s discoveries and the philosophy of Descartes, Newton grasped the intangible and dared to take its measure, a leap of the mind unparalleled in his generation. James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius, and one of the most acclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader into Newton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanations of the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies, rest, and motion—ideas so basic to the twenty-first century, it can truly be said: We are all Newtonians.

Introduction, by D.E. Smith.--Newton in the light of modern criticism, by D.E. Smith.--Newton and optics, by D.C. Miller.--Newton's philosophy of gravitation with special reference to modern relativity ideas, by G.D. Brikhoff.--Newton's influence upon the development of astrophysics, by W.W. Campbell.--Newton's dynamics, by M.I. Pupin.--Newton as an experimental philosopher, by P.R. Heyl.--Developments following from Newton's work, by E.W. Brown.--Newton's twenty years' delay in announcing the law of gravitation, by F. Cajori.--Newton's fluxions, by F. Cajori.--Newton's work in alchemy and chemistry, by L.C. Newell.--Newton's place in the history of religious thought, by G.S. Brett.--Newton in the mint, G.E. Roberts.--Newton's first critical disciple in the American colonies--John Winthrop, by F.E. Brasch.--Appendix : Program of the meeting at which the above papers were presented. Material displayed in the Newton exhibit at the American museum of natural history November and December, 1927.

Bestselling author and astrophysicist Mario Livio examines the lives and theories of history’s greatest mathematicians to ask how—if mathematics is an abstract construction of the human mind—it can so perfectly explain the physical world. Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that—mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is “a product of human thought that is independent of experience,” how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us? Physicist and author Mario Livio brilliantly explores mathematical ideas from Pythagoras to the present day as he shows us how intriguing questions and ingenious answers have led to ever deeper insights into our world. This fascinating book will interest anyone curious about the human mind, the scientific world, and the relationship between them.

Published in 1935: This is the first attempt to give a full portrait if the mind of the 16th and 17th centuries. Detailed accounts are given of all that is important in the first two centuries of modern science and philosophy.