Whatwas

New with

Newton?

(or not)

A History of Paradigms

Science gives us the paradigms we use to understand the world. Scientific experiments and observation contribute to paradigm shifts, but an intuitive aspect must accompany the experiments and theories. The worldview that goes along with the scientific model often takes longer to develop

and tends to last longer than the scientific model. Paradigms are created to organize the

information that scientists are bombarded with as they observe and probe the universe. As we

understand the scientific paradigms in which people have been situated throughout history we

can understand their broader worldview. Newton was instrumental in one of the great paradigm

shifts of our history.

Prehistoric

Pre 6th century BC

Classical

17th c. – 20th c.

Greek

6th c. BC - 17th c. AD

Modern Physics

20th c.

Each scientific model is

accompanied by a broader

corresponding worldview

Animistic Worldview

Aristotelian Worldview

Newtonian Worldview

Quantum Mechanics & Relativity

Animist Worldview- natural phenomena caused by the gods/ no distinction between natural and supernatural/ irrational/ disordered/ magical/ capricious/ human characteristics projected on gods and the earth

Aristotelian Worldview- organic/purposeful universe/ everything has a cause/ reason/ order/ rational/ distinction between natural and supernatural/ causality/ everything has a nature which is the cause of its behaviour/ teleology- everything has an end or purpose to which it is directed/ no motion without a mover/ things to be observed in their natural state- experiments as limiting/ intellectual synthesis/ very coherent/ impressive in its applicability/ corresponded to what people saw and experienced/ very strict, rigid social hierarchy- gave people a sense of security and where their place was in the world/ Aquinas synthesized Aristotle with religion

Newtonian Worldview- a small group of scientists combined the Greek view of an ordered rational nature with a Christian belief in creation/ empirical/ mechanistic causality/ individual events have determinable causes/ determinism- it is possible to determine future states of all the matter in the universe- seen in Freud’s psychoanalysis/ stage of space and time is absolute and eternal/ universe consists of matter, motion and forces/ all of this is governed by mathematical, universal natural laws/ reductionism- reduce the whole into its parts to gain understanding/ the whole is the sum of the parts/ analytic/ objectivism- we are mere observers when we do experiments/ epistemological confidence- we can know a lot about the universe and can continue to discover more/ the clockwork universe/ orderly/ the Enlightenment/ individualism- human society as individuals interacting in accordance with social laws/ equality before the law/ human rights/ democracy/ classical liberal economics- economy is the sum of the action of individual agents acting in accordance with the laws of supply and demand/ materialism- the way science approaches psychology, Marx’s political theory, North American consumerism/ utilitarian ethics- the good for society is the sum of the good for individuals/ skepticism about anything that can’t be explained in mechanistic terms/ this conceptual framework does not easily lend itself to talking about God/ rise of atheism

Emerging Worldview of Modern Physics- uncertainty principle- an epistemological statement which most scientists interpret ontologically/ views space, time and matter as a unified whole that may have unobservable dimensions/ there is more to the universe than we can understand/ not a complete picture of the universe/ universal laws are statistical in nature, overall patterns/ causes are not accounted for by individual events, but there is still radical consistency/ indeterminate- we can’t know the present in sufficient detail, let alone predict the future/ holistic- the whole is more than the sum of the parts/ non-locality- 2 entities that once interacted are in some ways always related/ participatory- we are not just observers of the universe, but participators in the universe/ epistemological modesty- we admit limitations to what we can know through science/ more helpful in expressing religious experience and divine encounters/ the great dance as controlling metaphor/ moral and cultural relativism- in ethics and sociology, things are different in different frames of reference/ political philosophy- renewed interest in the community identity/ Karl Young’s psychology- individual personality is rooted in the collective unconscious/ pop culture- renewed interest to notions of interconnectedness/ medicine- increase in holistic and alternative therapies- move away from a purely pharmological approach/ increased interest in eastern religions

Newton as Synthesizer

Newton contributed to this paradigm shift by synthesizing…Galileo’s mathematical description of nature

and approach to science.Francis Bacon’s empirical approach to science including induction and the scientific method. This is a neutral approach with no initial hypothesis, where axioms are confirmed through application.Descarte’s mechanistic philosophy, much like the atomists of ancient Greece. Science here is strictly a study of matter (as opposed to the mind) so natural phenomena were merely physical interactions with no relation to the divine.

Synthesis

Though this synthesis was based on the work of others, the act of synthesis was in

itself a novel and creative act. The work of synthesis throughout history has often been just as profoundly influential as the original

works being synthesized. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica is an example,

synthesizing the Bible with the work of Aristotle, and so, in essence, granting the

study of science the “green light”.

Principia, 1687

The result of this tremendous synthesis was Newton’s Principia, in which he laid out a

consistent system which would prove quantifiably verifiable by every experiment for a century. He employed a method of analysis

where natural phenomena were understood by breaking them up into smaller, separate sections and understanding the smaller,

simpler portions. He follows Euclid’s structure in that he begins with definitions to lay a

foundation for the work.

PrincipiaNewton followed these 4 Rules of Reason:1. No more causes than needed should be

admitted. (like Ockham’s Razor)2. The same effects should be explained by

the same causes.3. Qualities of bodies can be reasoned by

inference. (related to Atomist theories)4. Induced propositions should be believed

until proven otherwise through experiment.Interestingly, these rules were not based on

experiment, but were based on the fact that Newton believed God created the world in this

way.

3 Laws of Motion1. Law of Inertia- things will keep moving in a

straight line unless acted upon otherwise2. Force = mass x acceleration3. For every action there is an equal and opposite

reaction.Law of Universal Gravitation F=GxM1xM2 / r

2

Now for something new…

…explaining all observable natural phenomena at the time.

These laws are truly astounding in that they are synthetic, based on and confirmed by available experience of the world and tell us something new.

The sun-centred model of the universe was still not completely accepted at this time, but when Kepler’s work made the Copernican model more accurate and Newton gave the model laws of motion, the earth-centred model was totally dismissed.

From synthesizing the mathematical, empirical and mechanistic approaches of others to philosophy and science Newton was able to produce new and powerful results.

Newton wrote in a letter in 1676 “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Other unmentioned giants would include Copernicus, Kepler, and multitudes of others contributing the incremental advances that make up so much of the history of science.

But giants such as Newton, Copernicus and Einstein also made intuitive leaps, without which science could not have advanced as it has. As Stephen Hawking suggests, perhaps Newton should have said, “I used the shoulders of giants as a springboard.”

Now for Something Really New

Newtonian Haikus

turned christian thewicked one be

revealedin his time from all

its civil powerwhich might curb this

humour beremoved to what was

may not be ableto find out the exact

timeyet ought wee to

search

not but foresee thechange the religion

of ourenquiry to wit

if wee should not bedestroyed till the

brightness ofchrist’s second coming

we are enquiringafter that it is now high

time to consider

was soe changed that wee may not be

destroyed bythe spirit of pride

Haikus generated randomly by memes.angrygoats.net from Newton’s texts.