[lit-ideas] Re: Understanding Why Newton Contributed To Human Knowledge With A False Theory
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:22:22 EST
McEvoy:
"A question:- given that Newton's theories are false, must we conclude that
anyone who claimed to 'know' that they were right did not 'know' this? Must
we further conclude that Newton's theories were no contribution to human
knowledge because, by definition, no one ever 'knew' the theories to be true?
If they were a contribution to human knowledge, despite being false, in what
way are they knowledge?"
---- Well, if you mean that the apple did hit the ground, that was true. So
we have to consider the whole stuff of Sir Isaac Newton, F. R. S., writings.
Consider the statement:
(1) The apple hit the ground.
That was possibly true (although as Geary said, "visus est credentia"). Only
a diehard Popperian would like to justify that.
As for the other thing we are grateful to Newton for:
(2)
F =df m1 x m2
___________
d2
This is, as he noted, 'df', 'definitional', i.e. neither true for false.
Why, he could have 'defined' F as the ratio of the cube of the distance, "non
importanda unum cubum aquae congelata", as Geary said, "it wouldn't have
mattered one cube of frozen water."
-----
Most of the writings by Newton are undecipherable, because he had a poor
education, and not good instruments for measurement. He lived most of his life
in a barn among the Lincolnshire sheep, and when he was invite to London to
dine with the Queen, he felt awkward, out of place, and became a hermit.
Most of his theories are possibly false, yet he did more than that. He had
no children, although some sources say that he did (have children). He was not
gay. He possibly died of some infectious disease, or old age.
His apple is still preserved in the British museum.
Cheers,
JL
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