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struggle4progress

(118,217 posts)
29. The Principia was published when he was about 45, which is not generally regarded
Sat Apr 27, 2013, 11:17 PM
Apr 2013

as early in a man's life

He seems to have had a mental crisis in his 50s. One natural theory is that in the late 1680s or early 1690s he had poisoned himself somewhat in his alchemical experiments, since in that era modern laboratory safety notions had not yet been invented, and many practitioners regularly tasted the results of their experiments

It did not prevent his subsequent election to the Royal Society, and he did run the mint for thirty years afterwards. IIRC there is mathematical work, by other people, from the era in which Newton would have been in his seventies, which Newton is believed to have helped produce

I think his problem with hecklers occurred early in his life: he seems to have been so gravely discouraged by opposition to the theory of optics he began to devise, that he abandoned the theory. And after Halley and others finally persuaded him to publish his astronomical mechanics, he indicated he had deliberately written it in a somewhat-difficult-to-understand way, so that the hecklers would have trouble understanding it

It is a humanist manifesto, not an atheist manifesto. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #1
That's the headline. rug Apr 2013 #2
It seems to include many now-familiar rhetorical themes and salutes others who advance them: struggle4progress Apr 2013 #9
Perhaps instead of reading commentary you might go read the source. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #17
I already have stacks and stacks of stuff to read, stuff that actually challenges me struggle4progress Apr 2013 #23
Exactly so. There's nothing inherent in atheism that lends itself to any particular Joseph Ledger Apr 2013 #10
He does seem to have lit a fuse with out local religiously inflicted cohorts. Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #16
I don't think you can equate a yawn with lighting a fuse. rug Apr 2013 #18
the line is "you fill me with inertia". Warren Stupidity Apr 2013 #19
Yes, but some defacto7 Apr 2013 #27
The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism by AC Grayling – review struggle4progress Apr 2013 #3
The God Argument: the Case Against Religion and For Humanism by AC Grayling – review struggle4progress Apr 2013 #4
contemporary physicists might be pretty embarrassed by the outmoded opinions of revered patriarchs? dimbear Apr 2013 #21
"In the regions of interplanetary space the density of the aether is therefore very great compared struggle4progress Apr 2013 #24
"Newton believed that ancient Greek and Roman mythology contained hidden alchemical secrets" struggle4progress Apr 2013 #25
Newton's life divides sadly into an early period of genius and a later period dimbear Apr 2013 #28
The Principia was published when he was about 45, which is not generally regarded struggle4progress Apr 2013 #29
So much for Sir Isaac. But the other ostensible culprit, Maxwell. What's the dimbear Apr 2013 #31
Maxwell's demon isn't snide: it's a useful thermodynamic thought experiment struggle4progress Apr 2013 #32
The important point is that Maxwell didn't actually believe in demons, we're dimbear Apr 2013 #34
The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and For Humanism by A. C. Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #5
Reviewed: The God Argument by A C Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #6
Review: AC Grayling's latest attack on faith is smug, glib and lamentable struggle4progress Apr 2013 #7
The God Argument, By AC Grayling struggle4progress Apr 2013 #8
Do have even a glimmer skepticscott Apr 2013 #11
Etaoin shrdlu! struggle4progress Apr 2013 #12
RIP Ottmar Mergenthaler. rug Apr 2013 #14
Or I might have been thinking of the Pogo character struggle4progress Apr 2013 #15
Grayling has noticed that okasha Apr 2013 #13
If his audience were fundamentally uncritical skepticscott Apr 2013 #20
And, in fact, some atheists are so full of faith in their atheism, that atheism might indeed struggle4progress Apr 2013 #26
Find us some atheists skepticscott Apr 2013 #33
Currently rating 3.8 out of 5 at Amazon. There is a single 1 star review, dimbear Apr 2013 #22
k&r is the term.. Phillip McCleod Apr 2013 #30
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