All was light
Subtitle: an introduction to Newton's Opticks
By: A. Rupert Hall.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
Subjects: Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727; Optics -- Early works to 1800; Optics -- Europe -- History
Description: Opticks is Newton's most popular book. It is a complex work, the fruit of forty years of thought and investigation. Newton devoted various periods of experimentation to this final expression of his life's work and drew on the results of successive interactions with other scientists and thinkers. This introduction to his book seeks to disentangle the different layers of his thought in the light of these influences while explaining the development of the final text. It faces the problem of the changes in Newton's ideas in the course of the book's long preparation, touching on such deep questions of natural philosophy as atomism, forces, and the aether. The author also looks in detail at the way Newton has been interpreted both at home and abroad. This book, with its readable style and nonmathematical approach, should serve as an introduction to this area of Newton's science seen in the context of eighteenth century thought in Europe.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-246) and indexes.