Standing upon the shoulders of Giants.

[Integral]

Here is a different one for the debunking forum. We often see the quote in the title of this thread, attributed to Newton, used as some form of recognition to previous work.

Today I was in Borders and picked a copy of Schroedinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries By John Gribbin.

I found this:

Robert Hooke, who had been born in 1635 and was to live until 1703, was at the time Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society. He was an established figure in the scientific world, had his own ideas about light and colour (his own wave theory of light, less complete than Huygens's, was published in 1665), and was always eager to claim priority for any of his work. He responded to Newton's letter in patronizing terms, dismissing the notion that light could be made of corpuscles and failing to appreciate that the theory of colours did not,in fact, depend upon the corpuscular hypothesis. In acrimonious exchanges, Hooke implied that what was original in Newton's theory was wrong, and that what was right in Newton's theory was not original. The resulting row had two effects. First, it led to Newton retreating from the world of science at large and keeping himself to himself in Cambridge, refusing to publish anything much at all for years (and hugging his complete theory of optics to himself until Hooke died, when he could publish it in full and be sure of having the last word). Secondly, it led to Newton's famous remark 'If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants' - a cutting reference to the fact that Hooke was small of stature, and implying that he was small in intellect as well.!

So could this oft used quote have actually been a put down of Robert Hooke? The letter mentioned was Newtons first paper in Physics.

 

[russ_watters]

Heh, I have that book (good book) and didn't remember that part. Ironic if true, but it doesn't change the meaning (besides, it wouldn't sound anywhere near as cool if he had said "...standing on the shoulders of midgets".

 

[Phobos]

Actually, I think Newton was quoting and old saying. There was an article by Gould (can't think of which one at the moment...) in which he cites a book full of pre-Newtonian references to that saying. I'll see if I can track down the reference.