From Galileo to Newton, 1630-1720

Biographies & Memoirs

Hall, A. Rupert

Professionals & Academics

Harper&Row

For the first time, the early eighteenth century biographical notices of Sir Isaac Newton have been compiled into one convenient volume. Eminent Newtonian scholar Rupert Hall brings together the five biographies on Newton from this period and includes commentary on each translation. The centerpiece of the volume is a new translation of Paolo Frisi's 1778 biography, which was the first such work on Newton ever published. This comprehensive work also includes the biographies of Newton by Fontenelle (1727), Thomas Birch (1738), Charles Hutton (1795), and John Conduitt, as well as a bibliography of Newton's works. This book is a valuable addition to the works on Newton and will be of extreme interest to historians of science, Newtonian scholars, and general readers with an interest in the history of one of the world's greatest scientific geniuses.

Isaac Newton: Eighteenth-century Perspectives

Historical

Oxford University Press

All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks

Opticks, Newton's most popular book, is a complex work of genius and the fruit of forty years of thought and investigation. Newton devoted various periods of experimentation to this final expression of his life's work and drew on the results of successive interactions with other scientists and thinkers. This introduction to his book disentangles the different layers of Newton's thought processes in terms of his contemporary influences, and details the development of the final text. It explains problems that arose from Newton's changing ideas during the course of the book's long preparation, touching on such controversial issues of the time as the concepts of atomism, force, and the aether. The author also looks in detail at the way Newton has been interpreted both at home and abroad. This readable, non-mathematical book serves as an excellent introduction to Newton and the great achievement of Opticks and will fascinate students and general readers interested in natural philosophy and the history of science.

Opticks, Newton's most popular book, is a complex work of genius and the fruit of forty years of thought and investigation. Newton devoted various periods of experimentation to this final expression of his life's work and drew on the results of successive interactions with other scientists and thinkers. This introduction to his book disentangles the different layers of Newton's thought processes in terms of his contemporary influences, and details the development of the final text. It explains problems that arose from Newton's changing ideas during the course of the book's long preparation, touching on such controversial issues of the time as the concepts of atomism, force, and the aether. The author also looks in detail at the way Newton has been interpreted both at home and abroad. This readable, non-mathematical book serves as an excellent introduction to Newton and the great achievement of Opticks and will fascinate students and general readers interested in natural philosophy and the history of science.

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

The near century (1630-1720) that separates the important astronomical findings of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the vastly influential mathematical work of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) represents a pivotal stage of transition in the history of science. As a result of the raging intellectual battle between tradition and innovation that began in the fifteenth century, science was penetrated by a new outlook that placed emphasis on experiment and observation. Galileo showed the promise of its new methods of discovery; Newton brought out their full force and effect. Galileo suffered from an attempt to censure scientific inquiry; Newton showed how science could discover the universal laws of nature. The triumph of this new outlook marked the birth of modern science. From Galileo to Newton describes those new patterns of thought that emerged during this time of great excitement and widespread controversy. It discusses the discoveries revealed by telescope and microscope in the work of Huygens and Leeuwenhoek, and the new speculations to which these gave rise; Boyle's attempts to include chemical experiments within a rational theory of matter, and those begun by Descartes to explain the workings of the body on the basis of chemical and physical principles; and the revolutionary ideas in astronomy that generated the transition from the Ptolemaic concept of the universe to the Copernican and the subsequent acceptance of the heliostatic system. Since the dawn of civilization man has tried to find logic in the mysterious and order in the chaotic. From Galileo to Newton will appeal to anyone who wants to know what modern science is all about and how it came into being. One of the foremost authorities on the history of science, Professor Hall is not only a scholar of great learning and originality, he also writes with clarity, liveliness, and a keen biographical sense.

From Galileo to Newton

Dover Publications

Isaac Newton: Adventurer in Thought (Cambridge Science Biographies)

In this elegant, absorbing biography of Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Rupert Hall surveys the vast field of modern scholarship in order to interpret Newton's mathematical and experimental approach to nature. Mathematics was always the deepest, most innovative and productive of Newton's interests. However, he was also a historian, theologian, chemist, civil servant and natural philosopher. These diverse studies were unified in his single design as a Christian to explore every facet of God's creation. The exploration during the past forty years of Newton's huge manuscript legacy, has greatly altered previous stories of Newton's life, throwing new light on his personality and intellect. Hall's discussion of this research, first published in 1992, shows that Newton cannot simply be explained as a Platonist, or mystic. He remains a complex and enigmatic genius with an immensely imaginative and commonsensical mind.

Science & Math

Technology

Cambridge University Press

The Wellcome Trust is a charitable institution supporting medical and allied research throughout the world. This History of the Trust marks the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary in 1986. Professor A. Rupert Hall, a prominent science historian, long associated with the Trust, and B. A. Bembridge, a retired Trust scientist, have written this lucid and well informed account which charts the development of the organisation from its inception in 1936 to the present day. Within this framework, there is an underlying discussion of the 'philosophy' of the financial endowment of science and medicine. The Wellcome Trust has had an enormous impact on medical research over the years. This volume provides a unique insight into the development of a leading scientific research body, and its relevance to similar institutions the world over.

Physic and Philanthropy: A History of the Wellcome Trust 1936-1986

History

Bembridge, B. A.

Europe

Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz

Probably the most celebrated controversy in all of the history of science was that between Newton and Leibniz over the invention of the calculus. The argument ranged far beyond a mere priority dispute and took on the character of a war between two different philosophies of nature. Newton was the first to devise the methods of the calculus, but Leibniz (who independently discovered virtually identical methods) was the first to publish, in 1684. Mutual toleration passed into suspicion and, at last, denunciation of each by the other as a fraud and a plagiarist. The affair became a scandal, as British mathematicians asserted Newton's claims before the public while their Continental colleagues hotly defended Leibniz's priority. Professor Hall analyzes the situation out of which the dispute arose, the circumstances that caused it to become embittered, the dispositions of the chief actors, and the shifts in their opinions of each other.

History & Philosophy

In this elegant, absorbing biography of Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Rupert Hall surveys the vast field of modern scholarship in order to interpret Newton's mathematical and experimental approach to nature. Mathematics was always the deepest, most innovative and productive of Newton's interests. However, he was also a historian, theologian, chemist, civil servant and natural philosopher. These diverse studies were unified in his single design as a Christian to explore every facet of God's creation. The exploration during the past forty years of Newton's huge manuscript legacy, has greatly altered previous stories of Newton's life, throwing new light on his personality and intellect. Hall's discussion of this research, first published in 1992, shows that Newton cannot simply be explained as a Platonist, or mystic. He remains a complex and enigmatic genius with an immensely imaginative and commonsensical mind.

Henry More (1614-87) was the greatest English metaphysical theologian and the most perplexing; he was also perhaps the most distinguished member of the group of divines known as the Cambridge Platonists. An admirer of Galileo, Descartes and Boyle, he rejected their detailed applications of mechanical philosophy to the explanation of natural phenomena. He was an experimenter, yet also a cabalist, and one of the few writers whom Newton acknowledged as having influenced his ideas. First published in 1990, this thorough and accessible biography is the first book-length treatment of this remarkable character. Hall illuminates More's important contributions to science, particularly his work on space and time which influenced Newton, and gives fascinating insights into his spiritual philosophy and his preoccupation with witchcraft. The depth of Professor Hall's scholarship makes the book an exceptional account of the turbulent world of the Scientific Revolution.

Henry More and the Scientific Revolution

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Books by Hall, A. Rupert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hall, A. Rupert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

From Galileo to Newton, 1630-1720

Isaac Newton: Eighteenth-century Perspectives

All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks

All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks

From Galileo to Newton

Isaac Newton: Adventurer in Thought (Cambridge Science Biographies)

Physic and Philanthropy: A History of the Wellcome Trust 1936-1986

Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz

Isaac Newton: Adventurer in Thought (Cambridge Science Biographies)

Henry More and the Scientific Revolution