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Richard S. Westfall
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BIOGRAPHY

Professor of History of Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1963–89. Author of Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton and others.

Primary Contributions (2)
Consider how Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity led to a better understanding of planetary motion
Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician who was the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. In optics, his discovery of the composition of white light integrated the phenomena of colours into the science of light and laid the foundation for modern…
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Publications (2)
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge Paperback Library)
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge Paperback Library) (April 1983)
By Richard S. Westfall
This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure. Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science. Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the...
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The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics (Cambridge Studies in the History of Science)
The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics (Cambridge Studies in the History of Science) (January 1978)
By Richard S. Westfall
This introduction to the history of science in the seventeenth century examines the so-called 'scientific revolution' in terms of the interplay between two major themes. The Platonic-Pythagorean tradition looked on nature in geometric terms with the conviction that the cosmos was constructed according to the principles of mathematical order, while the mechanical philosophy conceived of nature as a huge machine and sought to explain the hidden mechanisms behind phenomena. Pursuing different goals,...
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