Mathematics and the Real World: The Remarkable Role of Evolution in the Making of Mathematics (2014)

CHAPTER III. MATHEMATICS AND THE VIEW OF THE WORLD IN EARLY MODERN TIMES

18. AND THEN CAME NEWTON

Isaac Newton developed mathematics that still today constitutes the basis for the description of nature. Beyond his technical achievement, which offered entirely new possibilities to describe the laws of nature with the help of mathematical relations, Newton's contribution represented something of an innovation also in the approach to the development of mathematics. The Greeks and their successors chose to advance known mathematical tools, principally geometry, which had developed naturally over many years for other purposes. Newton realized that there was nothing in the mathematics then available that was appropriate to his ideas, and he therefore formulated and developed special mathematics designed to describe nature.

Newton was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, England, on December 25, 1642, according to the English calendar, or January 7, 1643, according to the Gregorian calendar in use in most of Europe. (The Gregorian calendar was adopted by the Catholic countries in about 1582, and a little later by the Protestant and Orthodox countries. It was not adopted in England and its colonies until 1752.) Newton's father, a prosperous farmer, died shortly before Isaac's birth. Three years later, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, leaving Isaac at the farm in the hands of her mother. Isaac disliked his time at the farm and the way he was treated there, and this period in his life was apparently reflected in his somewhat-unsocial behavior and obsessively suspicious nature as long as he lived. When he was about nineteen, his mother returned to the farm after the death of her second husband and tried to turn him into a farmer. He hated the farm, however, and his mother was persuaded to send him to Trinity College, Cambridge. He did not shine as a student, but he immersed himself in the writings of Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, and Kepler. In 1665 the Great Plague reached the outskirts of Cambridge, and the university closed for two years. Newton spent those two years at Woolsthorpe Manor, and there, alone, he developed his original ideas of the mathematics of nature. The university reopened, and Newton was accepted as a junior member of faculty and worked there with the well-known mathematician Sir Isaac Barrow. Barrow immediately realized Newton's capabilities and advanced and supported him, and in due course Newton was appointed to the distinguished chair position that Barrow had held. From there Newton's path to the universal acclaim he deserved should have been a smooth one, but it was full of pitfalls caused mainly by his querulous nature, his suspicious personality that prevented him from publishing his achievements, and his unsocial attitude toward his colleagues. We will mention some instances of this below. Newton eventually reached the pinnacle of scientific fame in England and Europe, was granted a title (Sir) later in life than might have been expected, given his achievements, and served as president of the Royal Society. He died in March 1727 (on the 20th according to the English calendar, and the 31st according to the Gregorian).