The Foundations Of Newtons Alchemy

Author : B. J. T. Dobbs
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521207867
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.6X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy written by B. J. T. Dobbs and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1976-02-19 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Isaac Newton left at his death a large collection of papers on alchemy, mostly in his own handwriting; the importance of this legacy has been debated ever since. When it first appeared, Professor Dobb's detailed analysis of the foundations of Newton's alchemical pursuits further stimulated interest in the subject by firmly establishing the importance of alchemy in Newton's thought. This book sets the foundations of Newton's alchemy in their historical context in Restoration England. It is shown that alchemical modes of thought and particularly those of a Neoplatonic kind, were quite strong in many of those who provided the dynamism for the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and that these modes of thought had important relationships with general movements for reform in the same period: reform of religion, philosophy, learning, society and of man himself. Newton's alchemy is thus seen as a critical link between Renaissance Hermeticism and the rational chemistry and mechanics of the eighteenth century.

Author : B. J. T. Dobbs
Publisher : CUP Archive
ISBN 13 : 9780521273817
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy written by B. J. T. Dobbs and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1983-04-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets the foundations of Newton's alchemy in their historical context in Restoration England. It is shown that alchemical modes of thought were quite strong in many of those who provided the dynamism for the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and that these modes of thought had important relationships with general movements for reform in the same period.

Author : Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy written by Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy Or "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon" written by Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Alain Bauer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1620553325
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Isaac Newton's Freemasonry written by Alain Bauer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-03-22 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of how modern Freemasonry enabled Isaac Newton and his like-minded contemporaries to flourish • Shows that Freemasonry, as a mystical order, was conceived as something new--an amalgam of alchemy and science that had little to do with operative Freemasonry • Reveals how Newton and his friends crafted this “speculative,” symbolic Freemasonry as a model for the future of England • Connects Rosslyn Chapel, Henry Sinclair, and the Invisible College to Newton and his role in 17th-century Freemasonry Freemasonry, as a fraternal order of scientists and philosophers, emerged in the 17th century and represented something new--an amalgam of alchemy and science that allowed the creative genius of Isaac Newton and his contemporaries to flourish. In Isaac Newton’s Freemasonry, Alain Bauer presents the swirl of historical, sociological, and religious influences that sparked the spiritual ferment and transformation of that time. His research shows that Freemasonry represented a crossroads between science and spirituality and became the vehicle for promoting spiritual and intellectual egalitarianism. Isaac Newton was seminal in the “invention” of this new form of Freemasonry, which allowed Newton and other like-minded associates to free themselves of the church’s monopoly on the intellectual milieu of the time. This form of Freemasonry created an ideological blueprint that sought to move England beyond the civil wars generated by its religious conflicts to a society with scientific progress as its foundation and standard. The “science” of these men was rooted in the Hermetic tradition and included alchemy and even elements of magic. Yet, in contrast to the endless reinterpretations of church doctrine that fueled the conflicts ravaging England, this new society of Accepted Freemasons provided an intellectual haven and creative crucible for scientific and political progress. This book reveals the connections of Rosslyn Chapel, Henry Sinclair, and the Invisible College to Newton’s role in 17th-century Freemasonry and opens unexplored trails into the history of Freemasonry in Europe.

Author : William R. Newman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691185034
Total Pages : 537 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Newton the Alchemist written by William R. Newman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.

Author : Mary Losure
Publisher : Candlewick Press
ISBN 13 : 0763680478
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Isaac the Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton, Reveal'd written by Mary Losure and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising true story of Isaac Newton’s boyhood suggests an intellectual development owing as much to magic as science. Before Isaac Newton became the father of physics, an accomplished mathematician, or a leader of the scientific revolution, he was a boy living in an apothecary’s house, observing and experimenting, recording his observations of the world in a tiny notebook. As a young genius living in a time before science as we know it existed, Isaac studied the few books he could get his hands on, built handmade machines, and experimented with alchemy—a process of chemical reactions that seemed, at the time, to be magical. Mary Losure’s riveting narrative nonfiction account of Isaac’s early life traces his development as a thinker from his childhood, in friendly prose that will capture the attention of today’s budding scientists—as if by magic. Back matter includes an afterword, an author’s note, source notes, and a bibliography.

Author : Philip Ashley Fanning
Publisher : North Atlantic Books
ISBN 13 : 1556437722
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Isaac Newton and the Transmutation of Alchemy written by Philip Ashley Fanning and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isaac Newton was a dedicated alchemist, a fact usually obscured as unsuited to his stature as a leader of the scientific revolution. Author Philip Ashley Fanning has diligently examined the evidence and concludes that the two major aspects of Newton’s research—conventional science and alchemy—were actually inseparable. In Isaac Newton and the Transmutation of Alchemy, Fanning reveals the surprisingly profound influence that Newton’s study of this hermetic art had in shaping his widely adopted scientific concepts. Alchemy was an ancient tradition of speculative philosophy that promised miraculous powers, such as the ability to change base metals into gold and the possibility of a universal solvent or elixir of life. Fanning compellingly describes this carefully tended esoteric institution, which may have found its greatest advocate in the career of the father of modern science. Relegated to the fringes of discourse until its twentieth-century revival by innovative thinkers such as psychiatrist Carl Jung, alchemy offers a key to understanding both the foundations of modern knowledge and important avenues in which we may yet discover wisdom.

Author : Thomas Levenson
Publisher : Faber & Faber
ISBN 13 : 0571265758
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Newton and the Counterfeiter written by Thomas Levenson and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2011-03-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Already famous throughout Europe for his theories of planetary motion and gravity, Isaac Newton decided to take on the job of running the Royal Mint. And there, Newton became drawn into a battle with William Chaloner, the most skilful of counterfeiters, a man who not only got away with faking His Majesty's coins (a crime that the law equated with treason), but was trying to take over the Mint itself. But Chaloner had no idea who he was taking on. Newton pursued his enemy with the cold, implacable logic that he brought to his scientific research. Set against the backdrop of early eighteenth-century London with its sewers running down the middle of the streets, its fetid rivers, its packed houses, smoke and fog, its industries and its great port, this dark tale of obsession and revenge transforms our image of Britain's greatest scientist.

Author : Sarah Dry
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199354197
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Newton Papers written by Sarah Dry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Isaac Newton died in 1727 without a will, he left behind a wealth of papers that, when examined, gave his followers and his family a deep sense of unease. Some of what they contained was wildly heretical and alchemically obsessed, hinting at a Newton altogether stranger and less palatable than the one enshrined in Westminster Abbey as the paragon of English rationality. These manuscripts had the potential to undermine not merely Newton's reputation, but that of the scientific method he embodied. They were immediately suppressed as "unfit to be printed," and, aside from brief, troubling glimpses spread across centuries, the papers would remain hidden from sight for more than seven generations. In The Newton Papers, Sarah Dry illuminates the tangled history of these private writings over the course of nearly three hundred years, from the long span of Newton's own life into the present day. The writings, on subjects ranging from secret alchemical formulas to impassioned rejections of the Holy Trinity, would eventually come to light as they moved through the hands of relatives, collectors, and scholars. The story of their disappearance, dispersal, and rediscovery is populated by a diverse cast of characters who pursued and possessed the papers, from economist John Maynard Keynes to controversial Jewish Biblical scholar Abraham Yahuda. Dry's captivating narrative moves between these varied personalities, depicting how, as they chased the image of Newton through the thickets of his various obsessions, these men became obsessed themselves with the allure of defining the "true" Newton. Dry skillfully accounts for the ways with which Newton's pursuers have approached his papers over centuries. Ultimately, The Newton Papers shows how Newton has been made and re-made throughout history by those seeking to reconcile the cosmic contradictions of an extraordinarily complex man.