Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T19:53:37.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2013

Richard S. Westfall
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access

Summary

FEW MEN HAVE LIVED for whom less need exists to justify a biography. Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all times – and, in the opinion of many, not one of the greatest but the greatest. He marked the culmination of the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the intellectual transformation that brought modern science into being, and as the representative of that transformation he exerted more influence in shaping the world of the twentieth century, both for good and for ill, than any other single individual. We cannot begin to know too much about this man, and I will forbear to belabor the obvious and will say no more in justification of my book.

The life that I here present is a reduced version of the full-scale biography Never at Rest, which I published in 1980. In reducing the work in length, I have attempted to make it more accessible to a general audience by also reducing its technical content. (Very little mathematics appears in The Life of Isaac Newton. I invite those who feel the lack not only of mathematics but also of other technical details to consult the longer work.) To facilitate consultation, I have retained the titles of the original chapters; and the contents of the chapters, as condensations, follow the same patterns of organization. The numbers of the chapters do not correspond, however, for in condensing I have eliminated two of the fifteen in Never at Rest (Chapters 1 and 4).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Preface
  • Richard S. Westfall, Indiana University
  • Book: The Life of Isaac Newton
  • Online publication: 05 September 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107050334.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Preface
  • Richard S. Westfall, Indiana University
  • Book: The Life of Isaac Newton
  • Online publication: 05 September 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107050334.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Richard S. Westfall, Indiana University
  • Book: The Life of Isaac Newton
  • Online publication: 05 September 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107050334.002
Available formats
×