Re: @@Challenge to poly-choss@@



John MacLeod wrote:

"PaulHammond" <pahammond@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1128178671.677283.82270@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

True geniuses, like Newton, always downplay their intelligence.
Newton famously acknowledged the contributions of his
predecessors to his own work, when he said that he had
seen further because he was standing on the shoulders of
giants.



This would be Isaac "I make no hypotheses" Newton whom you discuss?  The well
known author of the Principiae?  The man who spent a great deal of his time
stirring the alchemic crucible in search of the philosopher's stone?  And,
according to some sources, at times thought he was a divine messenger partly
because his birthday was Christmas.  The same man who was survived by over a
million words of semi religious, semi alchemical writings which the Royal
Society of the time decided was 'unfit to publish' presumably to preserve his
reputation?  God knows how must similar junk he wrote which didn't survive the
fires.  The Newton who engaged in vituperative feuds with his peers and rivals
particularly Hooke and had to be practically caressed before he let his work
be published?
If we are discussing the same Newton there is this from the Internet:

"The famous Newton quote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the
shoulders of giants", appeared originally in a letter to Hooke, and Newton
presumably intended it as a sarcastic remark directed against Hooke, who had a
remarkably short stature. "

I have seen the same idea in other biographies.  I must admit I can't
personally see how it worked as an insult so I tend to think he meant it in
the sense its usually quoted but he certainly used insults freely so maybe he
did think it would hurt Hooke.


The contrast with Nima's attitude, who is always boasting
about his expertise, and name-dropping authorities in the
field who he says know his skills, while never being
willing to admit any mistake, is stark indeed.


In my judgement, Newton was more like Nima than you might like to think though
as far as I know Nima hasn't produced anything to compare with the Principiae
yet or even some of Newton's lesser but still major work on optics etc.

Maybe we all - Nima, Newton, you, I, Uncle Tom Cobley, Susan, Jay, even the
UHJ - are both good and bad, wise and foolish, kind and viscious.


There is no them, we are all only us. We are the giants, the midgets, the standers and the standees. Goo goo ga joob.

- All Bad

.

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