Abstract
A large number of global celebrations, speeches, talks and articles marked the bicentenary of Newton’s death. Newton’s work and thoughts have acquired special significance against the background of the revolution currently taking place in modern exact natural science.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
TN: Translations into Russian of the following articles follow in Pod znamenem marksizma, pp. 166–186: Einstein (1927)—an English translation appeared in the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1927 (see https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/einstein-on-newton), Thomson (1927) and Lamb (1927).
- 2.
TN: For J. J. Thomson, see Chap. 3, p. 35, n. 20 and p. 40, n. 37. Sir James Hopwood Jeans (1877–1946) was a British physicist and mathematician. He developed a ‘steady state’ cosmology and was unusual in his support for philosophical idealism. Sir Horace Lamb (1849–1934) was a British applied mathematician, well-known for his work on hydrodynamics. He wrote a number of influential text books. Sir Richard Tetley Glazebrook (1854–1935) was a leading British physicist.
- 3.
TN: see Barnes (1927).
- 4.
TN: Quotations translated by Hessen replaced by original from Barnes (1927).
- 5.
TN: Latin for “fear of empty space”.
- 6.
TN: Hessen references a Russian translation. The text used here is taken from the English translation in Descartes (1983), Part II, paragraph 64, p. 77.
- 7.
BH: Huygens, Traité de la Lumière, Paris, 1910, p. 3. TN: English translation used here in Huygens (1969), p. 3.
- 8.
BH: Whittaker (1910), p. 3.
- 9.
TN: An English translation of Hessen’s loose Russian translation is given. An accurate English translation of the letter is given in Descartes (1983), pp. xvii–xxviii. The relevant portion (pp. xxv–xxvi) is: “The other three parts [i.e. of the Principles] contain everything which is most general in Physics, namely, the explanation of the first laws or Principles of Nature, and the way in which the Heavens, the fixed Stars, the Planets, the Comets, and generally all the universe is composed; then, in particular, the nature of this earth, of air, of water, of fire, and of the loadstone, which are the bodies one can most commonly find everywhere about the earth; and of all the qualities which are observed in these bodies, such as light, heat, weight, and similar things: by which means I believe I have begun to explain all Philosophy in correct order, without having omitted any of those things which ought to precede the last things which I wrote. However, in order to pursue this project to completion, I ought hereafter to explain in the same way the nature of each of the other even more particular bodies which are on the earth, namely, minerals, plants, animals, and, principally, man”.
- 10.
- 11.
TN: Descartes’s theory of “massiveness” and “solidity” interpreted as the ratio of surface area to volume is discussed in Schuster (2013), Appendix 2.
- 12.
BH: L. Boltzmann, Entwicklung d. Methoden d. theoretischen Physik. TN: English translation here taken from Boltzmann (1974), p. 95.
- 13.
BH: Maxwell, On Action at a Distance, Russian translation. TN: The original English version is in Niven (1965), LIV, pp. 311–323.
- 14.
BH: Maxwell wrote: “The doctrine of direct action at a distance cannot claim for its author the discoverer of universal gravitation. It was first asserted by Roger Cotes, in the preface to the Principia, which he edited during Newton’s life. According to Cotes, it is by experience that we learn that all bodies gravitate. We do not learn in any other way that they are extended, moveable, or solid. Gravitation, therefore, has as much right to be considered an essential property of matter as extension, mobility or impenetrability.
And when the Newtonian philosophy gained ground in Europe, it was the opinion of Cotes, rather than that of Newton, that became most prevalent . . .”. TN: English translation, Niven (1965), p. 316. The idea that action at a distance was the view of Cotes rather than Newton is no longer put forward. However what Newton actually did think is a matter of debate. See, for example https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-philosophy/.
- 15.
BH: Engels, The Peasant War in Germany (in Russian). TN: The English translation is from The Peasant War in Germany in Engels (2010), p. 415.
- 16.
TN: English translation Niven (1965), p. 317.
- 17.
This paragraph and the following six are repeated in “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia”, Freudenthal and McLaughlin (2009), p. 67.
- 18.
- 19.
TN: This quote was not located by Freudenthal and McLaughlin and is presumably mistaken. Bacon did not use the term “mechanical” (Freudenthal and McLaughlin (2009), p. 67, n. 55).
- 20.
TN: Descartes (1983), Article 49, p. 22.
- 21.
- 22.
BH: Halley’s letter to Newton of 29 June 1686. TN: Turnbull (1960), p. 441. Halley writes of the problem of “making out the Planets motions by a composition of a Descent towards the sun, & an imprest motion”.
- 23.
TN: Freudenthal and McLaughlin (2009), p. 67, n. 57, give the reference “Newton allowed Him the ‘first impulse’ but forbade Him further interference in his solar system.” (Dialectics of Nature, Engels (1988), p. 480). They point out that only the second clause of the sentence is in quotes in the Russian.
- 24.
TN: The same sentence in Freudenthal and McLaughlin (2009) has “philosophers” rather than “historians”, presumably a correction.
- 25.
BH: Plekhanov, The Role of the Individual in History, Vol. 8, p. 274 (In Russian). TN: English translation Plekhanov (1976), p. 284. Available via https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1898/xx/individual.html, cited 13.03.20.
- 26.
BH: The initial impulse is the tangential component, of which Engels accused Newton. TN: See n. 23 above.
- 27.
TN: Henry More. English seventeenth century Cambridge Platonist philosopher.
- 28.
TN: Engels refers to Hegel’s notion of “bad infinity” several times, for example in Anti-Dühring, Engels (1988), p. 44. He writes that the “first conclusion drawn from this conception of infinity is that the chain of causes and effects in the world must at some time have had a beginning”.
- 29.
- 30.
BH: See Jordan (1927a). TN: The quotation is taken from the original English.
- 31.
TN: Born (1927a). Quotation from original. The word “trajectory” would perhaps be better than “course” which is used in the reference.
- 32.
BH: Lately the problem of causality and statistical laws has become most relevant particularly after the Schrödinger theory, which seemingly returned to the dynamical concept of molecular phenomena, received a purely statistical explanation. See P. Jordan for an essay on Schrödinger’s work, Naturwissenschaften, 5 May 1927. TN: i.e. Jordan (1927b).
- 33.
- 34.
BH: Logik, II, Book III, 2: ‘Die Wirklichkeit’. TN: Hegel (2010), Book Two, Section III, Actuality, pp. 465–505.
- 35.
BH: Engels, Archive II, 193–195 (in Russian). TN: Dialectics of Nature, Engels (1988), pp. 498–501. (The sentences quoted are taken from over four pages. The dots indicate that they do not follow directly from one another.)
- 36.
BH: See Deborin, “Our Disagreements”, in Letopisi marksizma (Chronicles of Marxism), Vol. 2, 1926, pp. 9–11 (in Russian).
- 37.
BH: Smoluchowski (1918). TN: The following quotations given by Hessen are only rough translations. Therefore we have translated from Hessen’s Russian text into English and given the original German with page numbers in footnotes.
- 38.
TN: “Im übrigen bezweckt dieselbe selbstverständlich keineswegs eine allseitige und endgültige Aufklärung des ganzen damit zusammenhängenden Komplexes philosophischer Fragen, sondern will nur eine Anregung zu weiteren Untersuchungen in einer bestimmten Richtung geben, indem einige Leitgedanken hervorgehoben werden, welche die bisher allzusehr vernachlässigte objektive Seite des Wahrscheinlichkeitsbegriffes ins rechte Licht setzen sollen.” (Italics in original, p. 253).
- 39.
TN: Die Frage, welche Ereignisse in den Geltungsbereich der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung fallen, wird wohl allgemein dahin beantwortet: diejenigen, deren Eintritt vom Zufall abhängt. (Italics in original, p. 253).
- 40.
TN: Betrachtet man in populärer Weise den Zufall als die Negation des Gesetzmäßigen, so sind diese Widersprüche gewiß vollständig unüberbrückbar, (pp. 253–254).
- 41.
TN: Offenbar sind also, soweit die Anwendung in der theoretischen Physik in Betracht kommt, alle Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorien von vornherein als ungenügend zu betrachten, welche den Zufall als “unbekannte Teilursache” auffassen, (Italics in original, p. 254).
- 42.
TN: Die physikalische Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Ereignisses kann nur von den Bedingungen abhängen, welche sein Zustandekommen beeinflussen, aber nicht von dem Grade unseres Wissens! (Italics in original, p. 254).
- 43.
TN: Ich bin mir wohl bewußt, daß dies im Gegensatz zu der allgemein üblichen Auffassung steht, welche eine teilweise Unkenntnis der Ursachen als das wesentliche hier in Betracht kommende Moment ansieht, darum sei als Beleg für unsere Behauptung bemerkt: Die Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnungen der kinetischen Gastheorie würden ihre Berechtigung auch dann behalten, wenn wir die Beschaffenheit der Moleküle, deren Anfangslagen usw. absolut genau kennen würden und imstande wären, deren Bewegungen mathematisch exakt für alle Zeiten zu verfolgen (p. 254).
- 44.
TN: Es scheint uns aber ein auch für den Philosophen äußerst wichtiges Ergebnis zu sein, wenn sich auch nur auf einem beschränkten Gebiet – dem der mathematischen Physik – zeigen läßt, daß der Begriff der Wahrscheinlichkeit, in der üblichen Bedeutung eines gesetzmäßigen Häufigkeitswertes zufälliger Ereignisse, eine streng objektive Bedeutung besitzt, daß man den Begriff und die Genese des Zufalls genau präzisieren kann, auch wenn man am Determinismus festhält, . . . (Italics in original, p. 262).
- 45.
BH: Maxwell looks into the problem of necessity and chance applied to physics in a small article published by Campbell and Garnett–Maxwell’s paper was given to a philosophical group at Cambridge (Club of Seniors). The article is titled “Does the progress of Physical Science tend to give any advantage to the opinion of Necessity (or Determinism) over that of the Contingency of Events and the Freedom of the Will?”TN: See Campbell and Garnett (1882), pp. 209–213. Hessen mistakenly wrote that the talk was given to the Cambridge Philosophical Society “Club of Seniors”. According to Campbell and Garnett it was actually given on 11th February 1873 to the Eranus Club, a small group of Cambridge University Seniors–Campbell and Garnett (1882), pp. 179 and 209.
- 46.
TN: Original English taken from Campbell and Garnett (1882), p. 213.
- 47.
BH: Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism, p. 312, 1920 edition (in Russian). TN: English translation taken from Lenin (1977). Although Hessen gives one page number, in fact the two sentences are from pp. 262 and 306 in the English edition.
References
Bacon, F. (2000). The new organon., Trans. Lisa Jardine and Michael Silverthorne Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barnes, E. W. (1927). The bicentenary of Newton’s death. Supplement to Nature, 119(2995), 21–24.
Boltzmann, L. (1974). Theoretical physics and philosophical problems. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Born, M. (1927a). Physical aspects of quantum mechanics. Nature, 119(2992), 354–357.
Born, M. (1927b). Quantenmechanik und Statistik. Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature), 15(10), 238–242.
Born, M. (1969). Physics in my generation. New York: Springer.
Campbell, L., & Garnett, W. (1882). The life of James Clerk Maxwell with the selection of his correspondence and occasional writings. London: Macmillan.
Descartes, R. (1983). Principles of Philosophy (trans. Miller, V.R and Miller, R.P). Reidel, Dordrecht.
Einstein, A. (1927). Newton’s Mechanik und ihr Einfluß auf die Gestaltung der theoretischen Physik. Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature), 15(12), 273–276.
Engels, F. (1988). Marx engels collected works (Vol. 25). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Engels, F. (2010). Marx engels collected works (Vol. 10). London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Freudenthal, G., & McLaughlin, P., (ed.) (2009). The social and economic roots of the scientific revolution: Texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, p. 278. Springer, Berlin.
Hegel, G. W. F. (2010). Science of logic. trans. G. di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huygens, C. (1969). Treatise on light. New York: Dover.
Jordan, P. (1927a). Philosophical foundations of quantum theory. Nature, 119(2998), 566–569.
Jordan, P. (1927b). [Review of] Schrödinger,E., Abhandlungen zur Wellen-mechanik. Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature), 15(18), 412–413.
Lamb, H. (1927). Newton’s work in mechanics. Supplement to Nature, 119(2995), 33–35.
Lenin, V. (1977). Collected works (Vol. 14). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Niven, W. D. (Ed.). (1965). The scientific papers of James Clerk Maxwell, (Vol. II). New York: Dover.
Plekhanov, G. V. (1976). Selected philosophical works II. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Schuster, J. (2013). Descartes-agonistes: Physico-mathematics, method & corpuscular-mechanism (pp. 1618–1633). Heidelberg: Springer.
Thomson, J. J. (1927). Newton’s work in physics. Supplement to Nature, 119(2995), 36–40.
Turnbull, H. W. (Ed.). (1960). The correspondence of Isaac Newton II. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Smoluchowski, M. (1918). Über den Begriff des Zufalls und den Ursprung der Wahrscheinlichkeitsgesetze in der Physik. (On the Concept of Chance and the Origin of the Laws of Probability in Physics). Die Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature), 6(17), 253–263.
Whittaker, E. (1910). A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Longmans, Green and Co., London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hessen, B. (2021). On the Bicentenary of Isaac Newton’s Death. Foreword to the Articles by A. Einstein and J. J. Thomson. In: Talbot, C., Pattison, O. (eds) Boris Hessen: Physics and Philosophy in the Soviet Union, 1927–1931. History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70045-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70045-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70044-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70045-4
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)