Tag: 17th century
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Rethinking the Republic of Letters: Two Perspectives on the Early Modern Learned Community
Early modern scholars oftentimes emphasised the ideal of sharing knowledge beyond confessional and national borders. But was the learned community of early modern Europe truly as open and accessible as these intellectuals proclaimed? Or did the Republic of Letters in action perhaps comprise a number of “sub-republics” divided along the lines of religion, discipline, region,…
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Over Fedde’s neerhalen van Newton
Door Floris Cohen De redactie van ‘Schelpen en Steentjes’ heeft me gevraagd om op Fedde Benedictus’ boutade over Newton te reageren, ik denk omdat ik de auteur ben van een boek over Newton. En inderdaad, in de epiloog van Isaac Newton en het ware weten vind ik een heel reeksje van zwakke punten van Newton…
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The Father of Modern Science?
By Fedde Benedictus Both the originality and the intrinsic value of the work of Isaac Newton have been grossly overestimated. According to traditional history of science, Newton’s work (of which primarily his Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687) was the 17th century’s very pinnacle of the mechanistic worldview, and with that, it provided one of…
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The Subtle Spiral of Life & Death.
By Fedde Benedictus Buried beneath spirals Ever since humans began using stone slabs for the decoration and demarcation of their gravesites, masonry has been employed to show the social status of the deceased individual. In this tradition, the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli chose the figure of a logarithmic spiral to be carved onto his gravestone.…