[extropy-chat] Standing on Giants

[Robin Hanson]

At 02:14 AM 8/22/2005, Brett Paatsch wrote:
>I liked the caption on James blog "If I have seen further than
>others it is by stepping on the toes of giants".

 From "The Newtonian Moment Arrives for Caltech Historian", Caltech News
39(2):2,8,9, 2005, arrived in my mail Saturday:

   [Newton] had a running conflict with another eminent British
   scientist, Robert Hooke, ... Hooke wanted to make peace.  Newton
   responded to his overture with a letter, in which he credited
   Descartes's contribution to optics, acknowledged Hooke's own, valuable
   contribution, and confessed that if he, Newton saw further than others
   into Nature's mysteries, "it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

   For centuries people have interpreted this as evidence of Newton's
   humility, says [Caltech's Mordechai] Feingold.  "Only problem is," he
   says, "Hooke was somewhat deformed.  So if you tell a hunchback you
   stood on the shoulders of giants, it's not a compliment.  It's a dig."

   "Newton was arrogant," says Feingold, "but it was because he new he
   was the purveyor of the truth in so many domains that he was unwilling
   to unable to listen to any objections or criticism.  And he was
   willing to defend his ideas nearly to the end.  He lived a long time
   and was basically able to bury his opposition."



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323