Happy Newtonmas 25 Dec 201122 Jun 2018 Isaac Newton was born on the 25th of December (under the old Calendar; in our calendar he was born on 4 January, but ignore that for this post). In a wonderful marriage of good scholarship and computers (often a very bad arrangement), Cambridge University Library’s Digital Library project has digitised some of Isaac’s notebooks and manuscripts. This one is his Trinity College Notebook, which he wrote as an undergraduate. Of interest to me, given that I am about to publish a chapter in a book (in Portuguese!) on the use of tree diagrams and thinking, is his version of the Arbor Porphyriana (Tree of Porphyry) used for generations to teach Aristotle’s logical division, or diaeresis: Logical trees are a very old way of representing classifications of ideas by division; we would call them subsets today. History Logic and philosophy Science
Book Unscientific America 17 Jul 2009 I can’t yet speak about this book, because my review copy is presently on what passes as Australia’s international mail service, which involves yaks hiking across the Himalayas and then taking the parcels via the Silk Road to Beijing, where they will be brought to northern Australia by junks, and… Read More
Evolution When do species begin? 11 Jun 200922 Jun 2018 Last night I attended a talk by Alexander Bird of Bristol on the metaphysics of natural kinds. I confess that a lot of it struck me as largely irrelevant to the actuality of the science as the level of metaphysics here, involving possible worlds and necessity, not to mention semantic… Read More
Philosophy My species book receives a Choice award 11 Feb 202011 Feb 2020 I am delighted to tell you that my book Species: The Evolution of the Idea has received a 2019 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title Award! The book met the meticulous Choice criteria from originality, uniqueness, and importance in building undergraduate library collections, to overall excellence in presentation and value to… Read More
Perception! yum … Newton certainly knows how to cut it (must read very carefully and sleep on it) geometry ? novelty Th?nk you
I recognise that diagram! Another blog I read included the same scanned page in a post published earlier this month. I have no point beyond just sharing the joy of unexpected recognition.
Ooh! Newton’s tree even has baubles on it. BTW, isn’t explaining Newton’s theological views a great way of trolling gnu atheists who call today Newtonmass? Oh and happy boxing day!
Newton may well have been the greatest and most important scientist of all time. And he was religious too, so I suppose we should put that one down for the accomodationists. I’m happy to be celebrating Newtonmas. May the mass x acceleration be with you.
And he was religious too… Newton was not merely religious he was a fundamentalist religious fanatic who seriously believed that he, and he alone, had been chosen by God to reveal the truths of nature. Definitely not an accomodationist.
Prezado João S. Wilkins, Qual é o título do livro em português? Seriously, what’s the title of the book you’re writing the chapter on tree diagrams and thinking? Any working papers? Any work-in-progress we Portuguese-speaking people could peruse ahead of the others? Any scraps? Anything at all? When will it be published? Feliz Natal, Feliz Newtonmas
Pombo, O. and Pina, M. (edrs) Em Torno de Darwin. Lisboa: Fim de Século (in press). As to publication, sometime this coming year. I have nothing online, sorry.
Have you published something by now? Happy to read about tree diagrams and thinking. Warm regards, Verena