The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought

In this major reevaluation of Isaac Newton's intellectual life, Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs shows how his pioneering work in mathematics, physics, and cosmology was intertwined with his study of alchemy. Professor Dobbs argues that to Newton those several intellectual pursuits were all ways of approaching Truth, and that Newton's primary goal was not the study of nature for its own sake but rather an attempt to establish a unified system that would have included both natural and divine principles. She also argues that Newton's methodology was much broader than modern scholars have previously supposed, and she traces the evolution of his thought on the intertwined problems of the microcosmic vegetable spirit of alchemy and the cause of the cosmic principle of gravitation.

Author: Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/22/2002
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 8.82h x 6.10w x 0.92d
ISBN: 9780521524872

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