Influence of Isaac Newton in the Development of Economic Thought
What makes academia so beautiful is the similar strand of thought that run through different disciplines creating familiar and similar foundation of their development. The juxtaposition of Newton with economic thought may be seen with an element of surprise and curiosity. Newton, as we all know, made large and mighty contributions to the field of science but what we may not know is how he played a crucial role in influencing thinkers of different fields to follow the similar direction of thought.
Isaac Newton was a physicist, mathematician, and one of the first scientific intellects of his time in England. He was born at Woolsthorpe, near Lincolnshire in 1616. His book, “Mathematical
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Smith writes: "I have no great faith in political arithmetick, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations." He is immensely impressed and influenced by the universal scope of Newton’s natural philosophy (magnified by the theory of gravity). Not only was Smith impressed with Newton’s idea of natural law, but also by the accuracy of his methodology unlike that of politik arithimetik.
The Wealth of Nations (1776) is seen as his magnum opus of a compilation of physiocratic thinking in addition to Smith’s greatest ideas. But prior to this writing, he also authored History of Astronomy where he traced interest from the Greek’s contribution to Newton’s. He dealt with natural science in the course of this essay. His conclusion of this essay was an enthusiastic description of Newton’s discoveries. This is how Newton’s subtle contribution can be observed in the development of economic
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He regarded him as an accomplished experimentalist and also observed the muscle of his intuition. “I believe that Newton could hold a problem in his mind for hours and days and weeks until it surrendered to him its secret” (Keynes, 1942). Keynes believed that Newton was a magician. Newton imagined the universe as a riddle made to the whims of God, the Almighty, and left it to mankind to unravel the mysteries of this universe. The answers of these riddles could be revealed by applying pure thought by means of certain evidence. This he could understand by the constitution of elements of the nature. This was the same deep ingrained belief in the natural laws that went on to influence so many thinkers in a spectrum of academia including the Enlightenment