Who said stood on the shoulders of giants

In a letter penned on February 5, , Newton wrote:. What Des-Cartes did was a good step. If I have seen further it is by standing on the sholders of Giants. Hooke, who as far as it is known never replied, maintained an antagonistic attitude toward Newton for the remainder of his life. However vast his intellect may have been, he revealed himself as far from a giant, for it is the mark of a small spirit to hide behind one-directional criticism while fleeing from intelligent two-way discourse.

Isaac Newton said he had seen farther by standing on the shoulders of giants, but he did not believe it. He was born into a world of darkness, obscurity, and magic; led a strangely pure and obsessive life, lacking parents, lovers, and friends; quarreled bitterly with great men who crossed his path; veered at least once to the brink of madness; cloaked his work in secrecy; and yet discovered more of the essential core of human knowledge than anyone before or after.

He was chief architect of the modern world. He answered the ancient philosophical riddles of light and motion, and he effectively discovered gravity. He showed how to predict the courses of heavenly bodies and so established our place in the cosmos. He made knowledge a thing of substance: quantitative and exact. He established principles, and they are called his laws.

Solitude was the essential part of his genius. As a youth he assimilated or rediscovered most of the mathematics known to humankind and then invented the calculus — the machinery by which the modern world understands change and flow — but kept this treasure to himself. He embraced his isolation through his productive years, devoting himself to the most secret of sciences, alchemy.

He feared the light of exposure, shrank from criticism and controversy, and seldom published his work at all. Striving to decipher the riddles of the universe, he emulated the complex secrecy in which he saw them encoded…. Complement it with Hegel on knowledge and the true task of the human mind. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.

The phrase may even pre-date John of Salisbury, who was known to have adapted and refined the work of others. Standing on the shoulders of giants Other phrases about: Parts of the body.

Another version is "We see further when standing on the shoulders of giants". But the essential metaphor remains the same. People who are proud of their contribution to a science are nonetheless well aware that they would have been unable to make that contribution if it were not for those scientists who have preceded them.

It is a fine sentiment, and knowing that it came from Newton - a scientific giant, if ever there was one - it provides a model of humility which scientists would do well to emulate. In this age of the television scientific pundit, unfortunately, scientific humility is often conspicuous by its absence. Newton's Biography. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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