Feb 3, 2022 08:32 PM
https://bigthink.com/13-8/isaac-newton-search-god/
EXCERPTS (Marcelo Gleiser): Newton's appetite for learning far transcended what we would nowadays call science. He devoted a larger amount of time to studies in alchemy and theology than physics.
[...] Isaac Newton’s cosmos was a product of divine intelligence and, even more, a stage where this intelligence constantly acts. To Newton, science was a portal to God’s mind, a bridge between humans and the Divine. It is no wonder that the great economist and historian of ideas John Maynard Keynes wrote that “Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians.”
Keynes continues: “Why do I call him a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher’s treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood.”
Newton, a name that represents the quintessential rationalist was, in fact, a rational mystic, who believed that science was akin to a religious practice, a meeting with God’s mind.
Now, I ask: Wouldn’t the study of physics from high school onward be much more appealing if students learned that scientific creativity doesn’t emerge from a vacuum and, instead, that science has deep ties with philosophy and religion? Sure, every story is different, but to add these extra dimensions to the narrative humanizes science and makes it more compelling and accessible. The equations are essential. But they don’t maketh the man... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS (Marcelo Gleiser): Newton's appetite for learning far transcended what we would nowadays call science. He devoted a larger amount of time to studies in alchemy and theology than physics.
[...] Isaac Newton’s cosmos was a product of divine intelligence and, even more, a stage where this intelligence constantly acts. To Newton, science was a portal to God’s mind, a bridge between humans and the Divine. It is no wonder that the great economist and historian of ideas John Maynard Keynes wrote that “Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians.”
Keynes continues: “Why do I call him a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher’s treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood.”
Newton, a name that represents the quintessential rationalist was, in fact, a rational mystic, who believed that science was akin to a religious practice, a meeting with God’s mind.
Now, I ask: Wouldn’t the study of physics from high school onward be much more appealing if students learned that scientific creativity doesn’t emerge from a vacuum and, instead, that science has deep ties with philosophy and religion? Sure, every story is different, but to add these extra dimensions to the narrative humanizes science and makes it more compelling and accessible. The equations are essential. But they don’t maketh the man... (MORE - missing details)