The more I investigate metaphysics the more I become interested in the philosophy of science. As I write this, my university is closed although instruction has moved online.
Nonetheless, I came across this interesting post from MIT mathematician Cal Newport. By way of introduction, it is important to think about how we can apply ourselves to innovative thinking during these difficult times resulting from our own experience with the COVID-19 outbreak.
As it turns out, Isaac Newton did just that. In 1666, due to the Black Plague, Newton found himself self-quarantined in one of his family estates because Cambridge closed down for about eighteen months. (I sure hope our present situation does not last that long!)
Anyway, here’s how James Trefil, author of Reading the Mind of God: In Search of the Principle of Universality describes the situation and how Newton discovered the principle of universal gravity and what has become known as Newton’s constant:
It is hard to say when this notion of separateness of the earth and the heavens began to break down. In his later years, Newton claimed that the incident of the apple took place in 1666, when Cambridge University was closed because of the plague and he was spending eighteen months in isolation on the family estates. His findings were published in final form in 1687, in his monumental three-volume Principia Mathematica. Somewhere between these two dates, then, the separation of earth and sky, which had ruled men’s minds for a millenium and a half, finally disappeared. (Trefil, 9)
The end result of Newton’s formulation (along with developing an advanced form of calculus) is that the older Greek cosmologies were overturned. Newton discovered the principle of universal gravity which laid the foundation for the principle of uniformity now considered a foundational and indispensable postulate of science. We now understand that objects in space do not conform to different scientific laws than the earth, as the Greek cosmologists believed.
And all of this came because Cambridge was closed due to the plague. I wonder if any of our students today, bored at home, will come up with a similar innovation? I certainly hope so.
For some excellent quarantine reading, I highly recommend James Trefil’s book entitled Reading the Mind of God: In Search of the Principle of Universality.
And here is Cal Newport’s post. Enjoy!
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