Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
| Full title | The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica) |
|---|---|
| Author | Isaac Newton |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Newton’s Principia states the laws of motion and universal gravitation and shows that the same mathematics governs a falling apple, the moon, the planets, the tides and the comets — and its method of axioms, geometric proof and quantities inferred from observation became the template the physical sciences have used ever since. |
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Where I heard about it
- Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, entry 17 of the History of Western Civilization section, given with no edition or year. The section runs the Western canon in rough chronological order and does not separate science from political philosophy — Newton sits between Descartes and Darwin, which is Li Lu’s way of saying the scientific method is part of the same inheritance as Locke and Mill.
About this edition
A three-book treatise, first published in Latin in 1687 and revised in 1713 and 1726; it derives Kepler’s empirical rules as consequences rather than accepting them as descriptions. The English title Li Lu cites is the one used for Andrew Motte’s 1729 translation.
Connections
- Li Lu’s Recommended Book List — the list this came from.
- Li Lu — the Himalaya Capital founder who assembled it.
- Isaac Newton — the author.
- Science — the method the book established more durably than any of its particular results.
- Enlightenment — the century that took Newton as its proof that nature was legible.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.