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Isaac Newton
Comprehensive Course Guide
Descartes and the Mechanical Background
Young Newton
Principia, Book I
Newton's Theology and Alchemy
The Argument for Universal Gravitation
Comets and Divine Fine-Tuning
1. J. Kepler, Astronomia Nova, trans. W. H. Donahue (Cambridge, 1992), Chapters 1,4,21 (only pp. 300-301), 33, 39, 40.
2. B. R. Goldstein, "Historical Perspectives on Copernicus's Account of Precession", Journal for the History of Astronomy, 25 (1994), pp. 189-197.
3. B. R. Goldstein and P. Barker, "The Role of Rothmann in the Dissolution of the Celestial Spheres", British Journal for History of Science, 28 (1995), pp. 385-403.
4. P. Barker and B. R. Goldstein, "Realism and Instrumentalism in Sixteenth Century Astronomy: A Reappraisal", Perspectives on Science, 6 (1998), pp. 232-258.
5. V. Thoren, "Tycho Brahe", in Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics: Tycho Brahe to Newton, ed. by R. Taton and C. Wilson (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 3-21.
6. B. Stephenson, Kepler's Physical Astronomy (Princeton, 1987), pp. 1-49.
7. P. Barker and B. R. Goldstein, "Distance and Velocity in Kepler's Astronomy", Annals of Science, 51 (1994), pp. 59-73.
8. P. Barker and B. R. Goldstein, "Theological Foundations of Kepler's Astronomy", Osiris, 16 (2001),88-113.
9. V. Thoren, "Kepler's Second Law in England", British Journal for the History of Science, 7 (1974), pp. 243-258.
1. Descartes, R. Principles of Philosophy In Philosophical Writings of Descartes,Vol.1 (Cambridge, 1989), trans. Cottingham, Stoothoff, & Murdoch, Part II, pp. 224-243.
2. Daniel Garber, Descartes' Metaphysical Physics (University of Chicago, 1992), pp. 156-230.
3. E.J. Aiton, The Vortex Theory of Planetary Motions (New York, 1972), Chapter 3, pp. 30-58.
1. John Herivel, The Background to Newton's Principia (Oxford, 1965), pp. 128-143, 152-161, 236-245.
2. J. A. Bennett, "Magnetical philosophy and astronomy from Wilkins to Hooke", in Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics: Tycho Brahe to Newton, ed. by R. Taton and C. Wilson (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 222-230.
1. D. Densmore, Newton's Principia: The central Argument (Santa Fe, 1995), pp. 3-16. Preliminaries and Book I, Defs. 1-8, Cor. 1,3,4; Laws.
2. D. Densmore, Newton's Principia: The central Argument (Santa Fe, 1995), pp. xix-xl, 17-80. Mathematical Background; Book I, lemmas 1,2,3,4,9,10
3. F. De Gandt, Force and Geometry in Newton's Principia, trans. C. Wilson (Princeton, 1995), pp. 3-57 (Preamble and the De Motu of 1684), 159-202.
4. D. Densmore, Newton's Principia: The central Argument (Santa Fe, 1995), pp. 93-182. Book I, props. 1-10.
5. D. Densmore, Newton's Principia: The central Argument (Santa Fe, 1995), pp. 183-209, 317-330, 348-352, 359-381. Book I, props. 11-13, 69, 71, 74, 75.
2. Alexandre Koyre, "Newton's 'Regulae Philosophandi"', Newtonian Studies (London, Chapman & Hall, 1965) pp. 261-272.
3. A.I. Sabra, Theories of Light from Descartes to Newton (Olboume, London, 1967) Chapters XI & XII, pp. 273-219.
4. J.E.McGuire, "The Origin of Newton's Doctrine of Essential Qualities", in Tradition and Innovation: Newton's Metaphysics of Nature (Kluwer, Boston, 1995), Chapter 6, pp. 239-261.
2. J. E. McGuire, "The Fate of the Date: The Theology of Newton's Principia Revisited" , in Rethinking the Scientific Revolution, ed. by Margaret I. OsIer (Cambridge, 2000) Part III, Chapter 13, pp. 271-295.
3. B. J. T. Dobbs, The Janus Faces of Genius: The role of Alchemy in Newton ' s Thought (Cambridge, 1991), Chapters 3 & 4, pp. 53-121.
1. D. Densmore, Newton's Principia: The central Argument (Santa Fe, 1995), pp. 239-317. Preliminaries and props. 1-5.
2. C. Wilson, "The Newtonian Achievement in Astronomy" in Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics: Tycho Brahe to Newton, ed. By R. Taton and C. Wilson (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 270-274 only.