Newton on the Beach: Principia Mathematica

Comments · 32

• ER

  @Erickvazquezc · 6 years ago

  lecture starts at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brJjnKPmo68&amp;t=345">5:45</a>

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• MI

  @michaelgonzalez9058 · 3 years ago

  Thank you I am flattered

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• RI

  @RichieW · 13 years ago

  Excellent talk. I really like Simon.

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• KO

  @koenvanvlaenderen5568 · 5 years ago

  So Newton and friends evaluated the reliablity of data sources, a necessary procedure for having an &apos;information order&apos; in the first place. It is not that surprising that the Principia not only covers the general principles and conclusions, but also the hard data and information on how the data was collected (and by who), on which the principles are based. Without a good theory of mechanics (the principles of motion), the data itself would not have been as meaningful; &nbsp;the &apos;inverse square law of gravity&apos; could not have been possible without the preliminary theoretical development of motion principles. Science is always the rather difficult (even intuitive) intellectial process of the interpretation of data and theoretical mathematical developments. &nbsp;Newton was brilliant at this, and he created &apos;an information order&apos; that stands to this day. &nbsp;The very same &apos;information&apos; procedures are valid today, we can apply these to the information of the internet. What is reliable data and what isn&apos;t, can we conclude something or even find a new and general principle? All this can be done from our living room nowadays. I am glad Newton is pictured in the right day light by Dr. Schaffer and colleques, many thanks!

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• DI

  @dinasanor2147 · 5 years ago

  Some of this seems like speculation. Very informative and well presented. Thank you Hist. Schaffer and Standford.

• A_

  @a_deniz_temiz · 4 years ago

  A meteoric journey of the force we have come to expect from Professor Schaffer. All the more forceful for demonstrating how questions concerning the historicity of science (and technology) are ever renewed on themselves even without moving (away from a text, from a period). The historicty of the text becomes a magnet in Professor Schaffer&apos;s hands around which political eonomy and imperialism begin to hinge. One of the most attractive paths budding from this fugue of a presentation that I would like to pursue is the British preoccupation with Japan around the time of the publication of the New Atlantis.

• ER

  @eravulgachris · 15 years ago

  I&apos;m surprised (though, should I be?) that the negative comments levelled at a speech aimed at savants be of such stunning uselessness, neither constructively adding nor destructively critiquing any element. &nbsp;I found it an interesting, if not slightly whimsical and ultimately narrow in scope, biographical eye-opener. &nbsp;

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• HO

  @howardleekilby7390 · 1 year ago

  ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤<br>BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO!<br>❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

• CH

  @charismaticmiddlingfauna · 10 years ago

  Fascinating and insightful talk, and useful for my work, thank you!

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• CA

  @CathySander · 16 years ago

  I can make an analogy between the &quot;Mathematical Prinicples of Natural Philosophy&quot; and &quot;The Origin of Species&quot;...Both Newton and Darwin had to source information from &quot;a wide range&quot; of places to support their ideas about the world. Not that surprising, to say the least.

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• ME

  @medievalmusiclover · 8 years ago

  Great lecture! Thanks for sharing. Hello from Texas, U.S.A.

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• JO

  @jongood1384 · 2 years ago

  I&apos;ve heard many math and science people who are bad at history. &nbsp;Here&apos;s a historian who is bad at math and science. &nbsp;One example: Newton certainly understood observation error (question at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brJjnKPmo68&amp;t=4320">1:12:00</a>). &nbsp;He was wrong on many things, but he wasn&apos;t an idiot.

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