Oh Dear, Sir Isaac!
So, new research demonstrates the human side of a great intelligence whose genius centuries ago revealed nature's mysteries as somewhat explicable, and brought to science a scaffold upon which to build further great theories in understanding the universe and the universal laws of creation. This great mathematician was, actually, only human.Great brilliant streaks of genius and theoretical leaps of imagination attributed to him. So that the world of science owes him a huge debt of gratitude. His notebooks are revealing as an inner look at the child that became the man of remarkable and distinguished discovery. In very human terms and human relations he was very human indeed.
What is surprising is his admission that at the age of 19 - presumably at that age, in that time in particular, already a mature adult - he indulged in juvenile behaviour. Actually, some fairly serious juvenile behaviour. What must his parents have thought when he threatened to burn down their home - with them inside?
Is this the behaviour of a brilliant minded-genius? One can imagine a spoiled juvenile delinquent throwing a tantrum and spouting destructive nonsense, but a 19-year-old, destined to be recognized as one of the great minds of the past centuries, upon whose brilliance so much has been accomplished in science?
He wrote of his sins of commission, in a spirit of regret, recognizing them for the attitude and the work of a peeved, undisciplined teen. He beat a young man whose name was Arthur Storer. That same young man incidentally, eventually become a noted astronomer. Sir Isaac Newton attempted to use counterfeit money. He made a mousetrap on the Lord's Day.
And he paid scant attention to sermons. He wrote in 1662, in his notebook, of his later remorse at his behaviour so unbecoming a genius of monumental proportions. The man who described the laws of motion, how light behaves, and the forces that hold the solar system together, wrote of "Peevishness at Master Clarke for a piece of bread and butter".
A mathematical prodigy, and a scientist of the first order, this man also believed in alchemy and astrology. Reflecting what was accepted as genuine, in the 17th Century. Imagine, the man who could theorize about the universe and gravity, the ultimate scientist, was undiscriminating enough to believe that base metals could be mysteriously altered into precious metals.
There is the genius side and there is the pedestrian side.
We are all of us human.
Labels: Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Nature, Science
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, February 15, 2012
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