USViking
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TY for the information.Ashurbanipal said:To really explain that, I'd have to basically type out everything these folks have written. Janiak, for example, thinks Newton is best thought of as a philosopher, and he makes a pretty good argument for it. Cohen agrees with your view about alchemy, Dobbs on the other hand thinks alchemical ideas, especially the notion of attractive force, was critical to Newton's physics.
I previously googled the three authors and noted how Dobbs was the driving force for the thesis “Alchemy as Inspiration Behind Newton’s Science”.
I am loathe to accept a thesis assigning import to a field of such intellectual and moral bankruptcy as alchemy. I do not see how a rigorous case can be made in favor of alchemy absent written affirmation in Newton’s hand and in the hand of the others, so I feel entitled to assume better of the motivation for their scientific endeavor, and leave it at that.Ashurbanipal said:Well, first, Boyle was his chief mentor in alchemy, and that Boyle, Locke, and Newton were all members of a secret alchemical fraternity. You should read, and really study deeply, some of Newton's "other" work to understand how he thought about things. As for it being an intellectual tragedy...well, that's the popular view of alchemy, certainly. I doubt Newton would have formulated either his physics or his optics without the aid of alchemical ideas, though. B.J.T. Dobbs makes a good case for this point.
It should not be necessary to introduce a tangent on the meaning of these terms.Ashurbanipal said:Depending on what you mean by the latter two (that is, what you mean by alchemy and theology), .
Googling “Newton Number words alchemy” provides authoritative academic citation for the fact that Newton devoted one million words over 600 MS pages to alchemy.Ashurbanipal said:you may or may not be right.
Googling “Newton Number words theology” provides authoritative academic citation for the fact that Newton devoted three million words to theology.
That is good enough for a QED on the immensity of Newton’s alchemical and theological work, even if the 1/3-1/3-1/3 rato is not exactly on the money.
Defense of dogmatically held religious belief is a branch of theology. Theology is the branch of philosophy which is devoted to religious thought.Ashurbanipal said:If by "theology" you mean the development of defenses of dogmatically-held beliefs, then sure, it's probably a worthless endeavor.
Our views are diametrically opposed here: I am sure I understand that theology is nowhere near being the worthiest of all fields of knowledge. (Alchemical knowledge is at the bottom of the list)Ashurbanipal said:If, on the other hand, you mean the attempt to grapple with and understand the great mystery of the divine, I'm not sure I understand why any other knowledge is more worth having.