34. A Brief Note on David Berlinski's book „Newton's Gift"

In the year 2000, David Berlinski published a book on Newton from the point of view of a modern mathematician and logic. Insofar as the book concentrates on Newton's philosophy of nature to be found in Newton's scientific and philosophical masterpiece, the "Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica" of 1687, one may well doubt if Berlinski really meets the true message. Contrary to Berlinski's view, the mathematical foundation of the theory of motion that Newton presents there is evidently not the analytical logic of arithmetic, of algebra, and of the calculus differentialis, but rather the synthetic geometry of Euclid.

Historians of science do know that Newton, the older he grew, the more he praised the power of ancient geometry, and its superiority over the analytic method, calling it the method "of the bunglers in mathematics".

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