Newton

Isaac Newton (1642–1727)—mathematician, physician, theologian, historian, alchemist, politician and high-ranking civil servant—spearheaded a revolution whose effects have endured to this day. It was he who gave full impetus to the scientific inquiry which, among others, would develop into modern astronomy, the explanation for planetary motion, a new theory of the structure of light, and the invention of infinitesimal calculus. The author of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica [Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy] not only invented modern astronomy, but also founded a theology and played a vital role in the political and administrative life of his time. This book reproduces the greatest moments in the work of this incomparable scholar. It also discusses the other fields of activity—such as history and alchemy—which interested the man who was the founder of modern rational thought. Marco Panza, a Senior Research Fellow at the CNRS, has notably published Nombres. Éléments de mathématiques pour philosophes, and co-authored Espace et horizons de réalité, Les savants et l’épistémologie vers la fin du XIXe siècle (with J.-C. Pont) and L’objectivité mathématique. Platonismes et structures formelles (with J.-M. Salanskis).