Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.20 (658 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 052152489X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 356 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-01-25 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Uninspired Viktor Blasjo This is an uninspired and moderately useful history of the calculus priority dispute. The standard account of the dispute, which occupies a few pages in any history of mathematics book, is essentially accurate. Hall's account adds nothing in particular and has no particular goal or thesis.Many problems arise from Hall's superficial understanding of the mathematics involved.
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. The argument ranged far beyond a mere priority dispute and took on the character of a war between two different philosophies of nature. 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.. The affair became a scandal, as British mathematicians asserted Newton's claims before the public while their Continental colleagues hotly defended Leibniz's priority. Mutual toleration passed into suspicion and, at last, denunciation of each by the other as a fraud and a plagiarist. Probably the most celebrated controversy in all of the history of science was that between Newton and Leibniz over the invention of the calculus