Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton

by Richard S. Westfall

• ISBN13: 9780521274357
• ISBN10: 0521274354
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-04-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This richly detailed biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure. Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science. Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the science of optics, and especially the investigations in celestial dynamics that led to the law of universal gravitation.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

A note about dates

Abbreviations used in footnotes

1. The discovery of a new world

2. A sober, silent, thinking lad

3. The solitary scholar

4. Resolving problems by motion

5. Anni mirabiles

6. Lucasian professor

7. Publication and crisis

8. Rebellion

9. Years of silence

10. Principia

11. Revolution

12. The Mint

13. President of the Royal Society

14. The priority dispute

15. Years of decline

Bibliographical essay

List of illustrations

Index.