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Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was one of the greatest scientists of all time, a thinker of extraordinary range and creativity who has left enduring legacies in mathematics and the natural sciences. In The Cambridge Companion to Newton a team of distinguished contributors examine all the main aspects of Newton's thought, including not only his approach to space, time, mechanics, and universal gravity in his Principia, his research in optics, and his contributions to mathematics, but also his more clandestine investigations into alchemy, theology, and prophecy, which have sometimes been overshadowed by his mathematical and scientific interests.
List of figures
List of contributors
Preface
Introduction I. Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith
1. Newton's philosophical analysis of space and time Robert DiSalle
2. Newton's concepts of force and mass, with notes on the Laws of Motion I. Bernard Cohen
3. Curvature in Newton's dynamics J. Bruce Brackenridge and Michael Nauenberg
4. The methodology of the Principia George E. Smith
5. Newton's argument for universal gravitation William Harper
6. Newton and celestial mechanics Curtis Wilson
7. Newton's optics and atomism Alan E. Shapiro
8. Newton's metaphysics Howard Stein
9. Analysis and synthesis in Newton's mathematical work Niccolò Guicciardini
10. Newton, active powers and the mechanical philosophy Alan Gabbey
11. The background to Newton's chemistry William Newman
12. Newton's alchemy Karin Figala
13. Newton on prophecy and the Apocalypse Maurizio Mamiani
14. Newton and eighteenth-century Christianity Scott Mandelbrote
15. Newton versus Leibniz: from geometry to metaphysics A. Rupert Hall
16. Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence Domenico Bertoloni Meli
Bibliography
Index
Contributors:
- I. Bernard Cohen
- George E. Smith
- Robert DiSalle
- J. Bruce Brackenridge
- Michael Nauenberg
- William Harper
- Curtis Wilson
- Alan E. Shapiro
- Howard Stein
- Niccolò Guicciardini
- Alan Gabbey
- William Newman
- Karin Figala
- Maurizio Mamiani
- Scott Mandelbrote
- A. Rupert Hall
- Domenico Bertoloni Meli
"[...] the quality of the scholarship is consistently high and often illuminating [...] there is a very well organized bibliography, offering an excellent guide for further study [...] This volume is consciously aimed at distinguishing Newton from the legend, and it does so admirably."
– British Journal for the History of Philosophy
