Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz

by Alfred Rupert Hall

• ISBN13: 9780521524896
• ISBN10: 052152489X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Probably the most celebrated controversy in all of the history of science was that between Newton and Leibniz over the invention of the calculus. The argument ranged far beyond a mere priority dispute and took on the character of a war between two different philosophies of nature. 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. Mutual toleration passed into suspicion and, at last, denunciation of each by the other as a fraud and a plagiarist. The affair became a scandal, as British mathematicians asserted Newton's claims before the public while their Continental colleagues hotly defended Leibniz's priority. 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.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Chronological outline	xi
Introduction	1	(9)
Beginnings in Cambridge	10	(14)
Newton states his claim: 1685	24	(20)
Leibniz encounters Newton: 1672--1676	44	(26)
The emergence of the calculus: 1677--1699	70	(40)
The outbreak: 1693--1700	110	(19)
Open warfare: 1700--1710	129	(17)
The philosophical debate	146	(22)
Thrust and parry: 1710--1713	168	(34)
The dogs of war: 1713--1715	202	(30)
War beyond death: 1715--1722	232	(29)
Appendix: Newton's ``Account of the Book entituled Commercium Epistolicum''	261	(54)
Notes	315	(17)
Index	332