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> I mean work done on it was steady evolution of knowledge started as philosophy. Newton himself called it philosophy. I addressed this already when I wrote ab
by dventimi 3y ago
> I mean work done on it was steady evolution of knowledge started as philosophy. Newton himself called it philosophy.
I addressed this already when I wrote above, "Newton may have called himself a philosopher but we're not obliged to follow suit." I don't care what Newton called it. By today's standards, it would be called "physics" and if he was teaching at a university today Newton would be in that department, not the philosophy department.
As for a "steady evolution of knowledge", however steady it was (I don't think it was steady at all), surely it was less steady than it would have been had there not been an eclipsing of classical antiquity and a thousand years of stunted progress in Western Europe. If it was more steady than it was, we would need more than two hands to count the important individuals punctuating scientific advancement. No, Isaac Newton was a towering giant. His Wikipedia page has this to say on the subject:
"It is held by European philosophers of the Enlightenment and by historians of the Enlightenment that Newton's publication of the Principia was a turning point in the Scientific Revolution and started the Enlightenment. It was Newton's conception of the universe based upon natural and rationally understandable laws that became one of the seeds for Enlightenment ideology"
Evidently the philosophers THEMSELVES have spoken and assigned Newton an outsized role in history. As for "Whither philosophy?" itself? However important it was in history and in the progress of civilization, I think now it's a museum piece that's outlived its usefulness. We've long since moved on from any need for philosophy.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
If you want to continue the matter, you can find me here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCitvgwzEn5__bR6qIeMSZ0g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCitvgwzEn5__bR6qIeMSZ0g
comment on any video, I'll reply, and we can take it from there