ISAAC NEWTON

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22533, 15 October 1938, Page 20

ISAAC NEWTON

A Notable Biography Isaac Newton, 1642-1727. By J. W. N. Sullivan. With a memoir of the author by Charles Singer. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 275 pp.

nteviewed by DR. KARL POPPER.]

In this interesting biography, the last work of the late J. W. N. Sullivan, we are confronted with the outstanding personality of one of the greatest scientists in human history, Isaac Newton. From Professor Charles Singer's memoir" of the author, we. learn that his work on Newton's biography occupied Sullivan, who died in- August, 1937, for more than the last 10 years of his life, particularly since the publication, in 1927, of his biography of Beethoven. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. He received a good education. When he was 17, his mother tried to turn him into a farmer, but his interests being elsewhere, he neglected his farming duties with such thoroughness that his mother had to give in. In 1661 he entered Cambridge University, and three years later, being in his twenty-third year, Newton made his first important original contribution to mathematics. In the following year he made three of the greatest discoveries in the history of scientific thought: the differential calculus, the composition of light, and the law of gravitation. Reluctance to Publish Characteristic of Newton was his reluctance to publish his discoveries. It was not until nearly 20 years later, and then only at the earnest solicitations of his friends, that he went thoroughly into his theory of gravitation and wrote the "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematical' one of the greatest works in the history of science. Written in 17 months of supreme concentration, it was presented to the Royal Society in April, 1686, and first published in midsummer, 1687. In 1669 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The importance of the appointment was that he had ample leisure to pursue his meditations. In 1679 Newton made the acquaintance of Charles Montague, later Lord Halifax, a great parliamentarian and Chancellor of the Exchequer —a friendship which became of great importance in Newton's career. Two years after the publication of the "Principia," in 1689. Newton himself entered political life, having been elected to represent the University in Parliament. James II tried to upset the Protestant foundation of the University, and the Senate was prepared to compromise. Newton pointed out that to compromise meant to yield a principle of real moment; and owing to his efforts, the University stood firm. The dispute, in which Newton apparently continued to play a leading role, became one of great consequence: it was partly through this affair that James had to leave the country. This struggle, together with the year spent in London, considerably influenced Newton's later development. He had just overcome the period of irritation and depression which followed the creative effort of the composition of the "Principia." Now his life, spent up to this time in almost complete isolation, has changed completely. He had entered the great world; and never again was he seriously concerned i with scientific investigation. He returned from London to Cambridge, restless and dissatisfied. When his attempts to find a new way of life at first failed, he sank into a sort of melancholy. This developed in 1693 to a state which obliges Mr Sullivan to say: "He was evidently oh the verge of" insanity." But it seems that he recovered, soon after;

and in 1696 his desire to return to the great world and London was fulfilled. With the help of his friend Montague he became Warden of the Mint and, three years later, Master of the Mint. In 1703, when he was 60, Newton was first elected President of the Royal Society and was annually reelected until his death. In 1705 he was knighted—the first English scientist to be so honoured. He died on March 20, 1727, 85 years of age. and was buried in Westminster Abbey. % Controversies The foregoing is drawn from Mr Sullivan's account of Newton. A good deal of the book is devoted to controversies in which Newton was engaged from time to time. The first was a dispute of priority with Robert Hooke, who doubtless discovered the square law of gravitation independently but later than Newton. The second was a quarrel with Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal; the roots of this lay rather in the unusual characters of the two men than in disagreement about scientific issues or claims. The last, with Leibniz, was another dispute over priority and a rather uni pleasant one. There is not the i slightest doubt left that. Newton's was the just claim, in this as in the affair with Hooke. Leibniz claimed priority in the invention of the differential calculus without any justification whatsoever. Newton came out with much credit; Leibniz was correspondingly discredited—more so, perhaps, than Mr Sullivan indicates: Paradox or Not? One of the main contentions of Mr Sullivan's book is that the paradox of Newton's scientific career—the fact that his scientific productivity practically came to an end in the middle of his life, when he was 42 has to be explained by his lack of interest in scientific matters. Or, as Mr Sullivan puts it: "The paradox of Newton's scientific career is due to the fact, probably unique in the history of scientific men, that he was a genius of the first order at something he did not consider of the first importance." But this judgment, however neatly expressed, is not entirely convincing. Not much evidence is offered that Newton did not consider his scientific endeavours of great importance, although it may be that he considered his theological investigations equally or even more important. And it may be questioned whether Newton's career is really paradoxical—whether it is so unusual to see great productive powers, after a huge effort, disappear early. A Pioneer in Scientific Method Another question might be tackled on lines different from those followed by the author. Newton's attitude towards his own theory of gravitation, as is well known, was not so enthusiastic as his followers'. Some of them considered the square law of gravitational action at a distance even as self-evident. As opposed to this, Newton once went even so far as to say: "That gravity should be . . . inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum, ... is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has ... a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it." And indeed, having been brought up under the influence of Descartes, who recognised but one kind of physical action, namely, push, Newton's own theory could not but appear to him as fanciful and its success as miraculous. This induced him to accept a supernatural, theological explanation of his theory. It is of considerable interest that the

theory of gravitation—the first scientific theory in the modern sense — was offered by its author, not because of its reasonableness or selfevidence, but solely because of its capacity to explain the observed facts deductively. This was a blow not only against Cartesianism. but, in the long run, against all forms of self-evidence argumentations; and it was the decisive step in the development of scientific method. Mr Sullivan's writing is lucid and his style is beautifully clear. He has succeeded in drawing a fascinating portrait. His book, devoted to the memory of an overwhelminß figure, will remain also as a memorial, of great dignity, to its distinguished author.