Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Newton's philosophical analysis of space and time
- 2 Newton's concepts of force and mass, with notes on the Laws of Motion
- 3 Curvature in Newton's dynamics
- 4 The methodology of the Principia
- 5 Newton's argument for universal gravitation
- 6 Newton and celestial mechanics
- 7 Newton's optics and atomism
- 8 Newton's metaphysics
- 9 Analysis and synthesis in Newton's mathematical work
- 10 Newton, active powers, and the mechanical philosophy
- 11 The background to Newton's chymistry
- 12 Newton's alchemy
- 13 Newton on prophecy and the Apocalypse
- 14 Newton and eighteenth-century Christianity
- 15 Newton versus Leibniz: from geometry to metaphysics
- 16 Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Newton's alchemy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Newton's philosophical analysis of space and time
- 2 Newton's concepts of force and mass, with notes on the Laws of Motion
- 3 Curvature in Newton's dynamics
- 4 The methodology of the Principia
- 5 Newton's argument for universal gravitation
- 6 Newton and celestial mechanics
- 7 Newton's optics and atomism
- 8 Newton's metaphysics
- 9 Analysis and synthesis in Newton's mathematical work
- 10 Newton, active powers, and the mechanical philosophy
- 11 The background to Newton's chymistry
- 12 Newton's alchemy
- 13 Newton on prophecy and the Apocalypse
- 14 Newton and eighteenth-century Christianity
- 15 Newton versus Leibniz: from geometry to metaphysics
- 16 Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
NEWTON’S ALCHEMICAL MANUSCRIPTS
It may seem suprising to present Isaac Newton, the founder of modern mathematical natural science, as a serious student of alchemy. He himself must have felt this anomaly, since at all stages of his life he was concerned to hide his occult interests from the public. Until very recently his large collection of alchemical manuscripts was hardly looked at, much less systematically sorted or studied, in contrast to his better-understood manuscripts dealing with mechanics or the theory of matter. Yet Newton dedicated at least as much time to alchemical and theological studies as to his mathematical and physical ones.
The process of dating his manuscripts has shown that Newton worked on alchemy at all periods of his productive life, in parallel with his scientific work. This evidence proves that his occult studies were not the aberrations of senility. Newton would hardly have devoted so much time to such “absurdities” if he had not been convinced that some deeper knowledge lay hidden, which he eventually believed that he had at least in part discovered.
Newton attempted to make a synthesis of his occult-alchemical and exact-scientific research. For him a means of attaining this goal was the study of the so-called “prisca sapientia,” a tradition of ancient wisdom. Newton considered that the original wisdom of the ancients, which had been gradually lost through the ages, was most fully retained in the writings of the Hermetic tradition. He saw himself as endeavoring to explain, by means of experimental science, this “sapientia,” which had grown unintelligible.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Newton , pp. 370 - 386Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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