eBook

Newton and the Origin of Civilization

Buchwald, Jed Z, Feingold, Mordechai

2012,2013

Overview

Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, published in 1728, one year after the great man's death, unleashed a storm of controversy. And for good reason. The book presents a drastically revised timeline for ancient civilizations, contracting Greek history by five hundred years and Egypt's by a millennium. Newton and the Origin of Civilization tells the story of how one of the most celebrated figures in the history of mathematics, optics, and mechanics came to apply his unique ways of thinking to problems of history, theology, and mythology, and of how his radical ideas produced an uproar that reverberated in Europe's learned circles throughout the eighteenth century and beyond. Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold reveal the manner in which Newton strove for nearly half a century to rectify universal history by reading ancient texts through the lens of astronomy, and to create a tight theoretical system for interpreting the evolution of civilization on the basis of population dynamics. It was during Newton's earliest years at Cambridge that he developed the core of his singular method for generating and working with trustworthy knowledge, which he applied to his study of the past with the same rigor he brought to his work in physics and mathematics. Drawing extensively on Newton's unpublished papers and a host of other primary sources, Buchwald and Feingold reconcile Isaac Newton the rational scientist with Newton the natural philosopher, alchemist, theologian, and chronologist of ancient history.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 17th century / 18th Century / 1QDA / After the Deluge / Analogy / Ancient / Ancient history / Aries (constellation) / Assyria / Asterism (astronomy) / Astrological sign / Astronomer / Astronomy / Biography / Calculation / Canaan / Cetus / Chronology / Chronology of ancient kingdoms amended / Chronology, Historical / Chronology, Historical -- History -- 17th century / Civilization, Ancient / Civilization, Ancient -- Philosophy / Colure / Computation / Ctesias / Deity / Determination / Diodorus Siculus / Ecliptic / Edmond Halley / Egyptians / England / Erudition / Euhemerism / Europe / Europe -- Intellectual life -- 17th century / God / HBLA / Hebrews / Herodotus / Hesiod / History / HISTORY / Ancient / General / HISTORY / Modern / General / History of Science & Technology / Hypothesis / Idolatry / Illustration / Intellectual life / Israelites / Jews / Judea (Roman province) / Longitude / Manetho / Masoretic Text / Mathematician / Measurement / Modern / Narrative / Natural philosophy / New Chronology (Fomenko) / Newton's method / Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727 / Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 / Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 -- Philosophy / Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727 -- Public opinion / Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727. Chronology of ancient kingdoms amended / Ninus / Old Testament / Opticks / PDX / Perihelion and aphelion / Philology / Philosopher / Philosophers / Philosophers -- England -- Biography / Philosophy / Phoenicia / Probability / Public opinion / Public opinion -- Europe -- History -- 17th century / Pure sciences. Historical, geographic, persons treatment / Reason / Religion / Religious text / Result / Riccioli (crater) / Right ascension / Robert Hooke / SCIENCE / SCIENCE / History / Scientists / Scientists -- England -- Biography / Skepticism / Superiority (short story) / Theology / Thomas Hobbes / Treatise / William Whiston / Winter solstice / Writing / Year
• ISBN: 1400845181, 9781400845187, 9780691154787, 0691154783