The "Quaestiones" reveal that Newton had discovered the new concept of nature that provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution. It was during this time that Newton kept a second set of notes, entitled "Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae" ("Certain Philosophical Questions"). The result was a less-than-stellar performance, but one that is understandable, given his dual course of study. All his spare time was spent reading from the modern philosophers. Yet, like most universities in Europe, Cambridge was steeped in Aristotelian philosophy and a view of nature resting on a geocentric view of the universe, dealing with nature in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.ĭuring his first three years at Cambridge, Newton was taught the standard curriculum but was fascinated with the more advanced science. Philosopher René Descartes had begun to formulate a new concept of nature as an intricate, impersonal and inert machine. The heliocentric view of the universe-theorized by astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and later refined by Galileo-was well known in most European academic circles. When Newton arrived at Cambridge, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. Newton enrolled in a program similar to a work-study in 1661, and subsequently waited on tables and took care of wealthier students' rooms. Perhaps sensing the young man's innate intellectual abilities, his uncle, a graduate of the University of Cambridge's Trinity College, persuaded Newton's mother to have him enter the university. He soon was sent back to King's School to finish his basic education. Newton failed miserably, as he found farming monotonous. His mother pulled him out of school, for her plan was to make him a farmer and have him tend the farm. Newton had been enrolled at the King's School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry. She brought along her three small children from her second marriage. He anxiously obsessed over his published work, defending its merits with irrational behavior.Īt age 12, Newton was reunited with his mother after her second husband died. The experience left an indelible imprint on Newton, later manifesting itself as an acute sense of insecurity. When he was 3 years old, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried a well-to-do minister, Barnabas Smith, and went to live with him, leaving young Newton with his maternal grandmother. A premature baby born tiny and weak, Newton was not expected to survive. He was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac Newton, who died three months before he was born. On January 4, 1643, Isaac Newton was born in the hamlet of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England (using the "old" Julien calendar, Newton's birth date is sometimes displayed as December 25, 1642).
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