Philosophers at War: The Quarrel Between Newton and LeibnizProbably the most celebrated controversy in all of the history of science was that between Newton and Leibniz over the invention of the calculus. The argument ranged far beyond a mere priority dispute and took on the character of a war between two different philosophies of nature. Newton was the first to devise the methods of the calculus, but Leibniz (who independently discovered virtually identical methods) was the first to publish, in 1684. Mutual toleration passed into suspicion and, at last, denunciation of each by the other as a fraud and a plagiarist. The affair became a scandal, as British mathematicians asserted Newton's claims before the public while their Continental colleagues hotly defended Leibniz's priority. Professor Hall analyzes the situation out of which the dispute arose, the circumstances that caused it to become embittered, the dispositions of the chief actors, and the shifts in their opinions of each other. |
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Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Beginnings in Cambridge | 10 |
Newton states his claim 1685 | 24 |
Leibniz encounters Newton 16721676 | 44 |
The emergence of the calculus 16771699 | 70 |
The outbreak 16931700 | 110 |
Open warfare 17001710 | 129 |
The philosophical debate | 146 |
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Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz Alfred Rupert Hall No preview available - 1980 |
Common terms and phrases
Acta Eruditorum Algebra already analysis Barrow calculus dispute Cambridge certainly Cheyne circle claim Collins Commercium Epistolicum Conti converging Series Correspondence Craige culus David Gregory Descartes differential calculus discovery draft edition England English equations evidence fact fame Fatio fent firſt fluents force friends geometry Gerhardt gravity Gregory's Huygens ideas infinite series infinitesimal calculus integration invented inventor Isaac Newton James Gregory Johann Bernoulli John Keill Keill knew later Leib Leibniz's letter Leibnizian London Maizeaux Math mathematician matical matter mechanical method of fluxions method of series method of tangents mind motion nature Newton and Leibniz Newton's letter Newton's mathematical Newton's method Newtonian October Oldenburg Opticks paper Paris perhaps Philosophical Pierre Varignon Principia printed priority problem propositions published quadrature Quadrature of Curves quantities Royal Society scholium Schriften Second Letter seems theorem theſe things tion ton's treatise uſed Varignon Wallis Wallis's Whiteside words writing written wrote