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Newton's Sensorium: Anatomy of a Concept (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018)
Loot Price: R2,789
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Newton's Sensorium: Anatomy of a Concept (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018)
Series: Archimedes, 53
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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These chapters analyze texts from Isaac Newton's work to shed new
light on scientific understanding at his time. Newton used the
concept of "sensorium" in writings intended for a public audience,
in relation to both humans and God, but even today there is no
consensus about the meaning of his term. The literal definition of
the Latin term 'sensorium', or its English equivalent 'sensory', is
'thing that feels' but this is a theoretical construct. The book
takes readers on a process of discovery, through inquiry into both
Newton's concept and its underlying model. It begins with the human
sensorium. This part of his concept is situated in the context of
the aforesaid writings but also in the context of the writings of
two of Newton's contemporaries, the physicians William Briggs and
Thomas Willis, both of whom were at the forefront of their
respective specialties of ophthalmology and neurology. Only once
the human sensorium has been explored is it possible to generalize
to the unobservable divine sensorium, because Newton's method of
reasoning from experience requires that the second part of his
concept is last in the order of knowledge. And the reason for this
sequence is that his method, the short-hand term for which is
'analogy of nature', proceeds from that which has been observed to
be universally true to that which is beyond the limits of
observation. Consequently, generalization passes insensibly into
reasoning by analogy. Readers will see how certain widespread
assumptions can be called into question, such as that Newton was a
theological voluntarist for whom the will is superior to the
intellect, or that, for Newton, not only the world or universe but
also God occupies the whole extent of infinite space. The insights
afforded through this book will appeal to scholars of the
philosophy of science, human physiology, philosophy of mind and
epistemology, among others.
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