The Reason of Heaven, Earth, and Man: A Chronicle of the Life of Old Man Newton

The Reason of Heaven, Earth, and Man: A Chronicle of the Life of Old Man Newton


In 1666, while the plague was raging in London and Cambridge University was temporarily closed, young Isaac Newton returned to his birthplace in his hometown of Wallthorpe. One summer day, he was quietly drinking tea in the garden. Looking up, he saw an apple fall from the tree. Why does the apple fall straight to the ground instead of flying at an angle? This question later became the beginning of the "Law of Universal Gravitation," a major discovery that changed the world's view of nature.

This episode was later recorded by his student William Stukeley and passed down like a myth. However, the common story that the apple hit Newton on the head is a fabrication; in fact, Newton himself only said that he saw the apple fall. However, this attitude of leaping from a single phenomenon to the laws of the universe was the reason for Newton's genius.

After his studies and teaching at Cambridge University, Newton published "Principia" in 1687. He systematized the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, decisively changing the history of science. But his life was not filled only with theory and experimentation.

In 1696, at the age of 53, Newton moved to London as an official of the Royal Mint. At the time, counterfeit currency was rampant in England, a problem that shook the nation's credibility. Newton rose to the challenge, and through meticulous research and the collection of evidence, he uncovered the notorious counterfeiter William Challoner and led to his execution. Here was Newton, not as a theorist, but as an astute practitioner.

In 1699 he was promoted to director of the mint, and in 1703 he was elected president of the Royal Society. As the highest authority in science, Newton became the ruler of knowledge in England. However, this power would soon be used for one bitter intellectual conflict. --Newton's calculus controversy with Leibniz was to be the most bitter intellectual confrontation of his career.

Newton had already discovered calculus (which he called the "law of flow rates") in the 1660s, but he left his results unpublished for a long time. Meanwhile, the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz published his calculus in 1684 with a clear notation. As word of this paper spread, Newton suspected that his discovery had been stolen, and gradually became jealous and wary.

In 1704, Newton added an anonymous statement to the appendix of his book "Optics" that he had discovered calculus first. In 1708, he sent a letter to the Royal Society implying that Leibniz had plagiarized his work, and it was Newton himself who wrote the letter. He had set up his own accusation by posing as someone else.

In 1712, the Royal Society conducted a formal investigation and produced a report that Newton led behind the scenes. The report was, of course, unfavorable to Leibniz, and his reputation was severely tarnished. Ironically, the "neutral investigation report" was authored by Newton himself, as if to prove his own legitimacy with his own pen. This made Newton the victor in the war of knowledge as well.

But this victory was a quiet, lonely one. Leibniz died in 1716, and when Newton heard the news, he muttered, "This war is finally over. It is hard to believe that these words came from the mouth of a scientist, like an old general returning from the battlefield.

In his later years, Newton led a quiet life in the London suburb of Kensington while continuing to serve as president of the Royal Society and director of the Mint. Though plagued by illness, his fame grew, and when he died in 1727 at the age of 84, he was buried in Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that resembled a state funeral. As a scientist, administrator, and victor of knowledge, Newton was inscribed as the "symbol of reason" of his time.

But that his story is more than just a success story is told by the process that begins with the quiet afternoon when he saw the apple fall and ends with the accusatory letter written unbeknownst to anyone. Newton was not only a man who understood the operation of the heavenly bodies, he was also, more than any other, a practical man, driven by human passions over honor.