Newton, Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler were RE-Discovering Ancient Knowledge

This is not commonly known but is explored here in the following paper …

“The central purpose of the ‘classical’ scholia was to support the doctrine of universal gravitation as developed in these Propositions, and to enquire into its nature as a cosmic force. This doctrine is shown by Newton to be identifiable in the writings of the ancients. As will become clear, he is not using this historical evidence in a random fashion, or merely for literary ornamentation. Rather the evidence is used in a serious and systematic fashion, as support for, and justification of, the components of Newton’s theory of matter, space and gravitation. The evidence is used to establish four basic theses, which correspond to the matter of Proposition IV to IX. These are, that there was an ancient knowledge of the truth of the following four principles: that matter is atomic in structure and moves by gravity through void space; that gravitational force acts universally; that gravity diminishes in the ratio of the inverse square of the distances between bodies; and that the true cause of gravity is the direct 9 action of God.”

“After having written his highly technical and innovative Principia, Newton sought to justify his concept of attraction by showing that the ancients had already discovered the law of universal gravitation.”

” […] the Classical Scholia belong to a particular tradition: rather than consorting with the tradition of the prisca in the broad sense, they belong to a variant properly called ‘Copernican’ which was used to vindicate the validity – on both the technical and philosophical level – of ancient cosmological models which were alternatives to the geostatic system. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and their followers had often understood the progress of astronomy as being also a reversion towards propositions comprehended intuitively by the Ancients. 14 ”

https://core.ac.uk/download/files/425/11921629.pdf

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