Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronological Outline
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Beginnings in Cambridge
- 3 Newton states his claim: 1685
- 4 Leibniz encounters Newton: 1672–1676
- 5 The emergence of the calculus: 1677–1699
- 6 The outbreak: 1693–1700
- 7 Open warfare: 1700–1710
- 8 The philosophical debate
- 9 Thrust and parry: 1710–1713
- 10 The dogs of war: 1713–1715
- 11 War beyond death: 1715–1722
- Appendix: Newton's “Account of the Book entituled Commercium Epistolicum”
- Notes
- Index
6 - The outbreak: 1693–1700
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronological Outline
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Beginnings in Cambridge
- 3 Newton states his claim: 1685
- 4 Leibniz encounters Newton: 1672–1676
- 5 The emergence of the calculus: 1677–1699
- 6 The outbreak: 1693–1700
- 7 Open warfare: 1700–1710
- 8 The philosophical debate
- 9 Thrust and parry: 1710–1713
- 10 The dogs of war: 1713–1715
- 11 War beyond death: 1715–1722
- Appendix: Newton's “Account of the Book entituled Commercium Epistolicum”
- Notes
- Index
Summary
In march 1693 Fatio de Duillier had been invited by Newton to rejoin him in Cambridge at Newton's expense, and on 11 April (apparently in reply to this invitation) Fatio wrote:
I could wish Sir to live all my life, or the greatest part of it, with you, if it was possible, and shall allways be glad of any such methods to bring that to pass as shall not be chargeable to You and a burthen to Your estate or family.
Thereafter, the intimate and frequent correspondence between the two men ceases; the following summer was that of Newton's mental illness. We have no evidence as to what passed when Newton admitted his friend, at Cambridge, to the privacy of his manuscripts, nor subsequently do we have any record of how he reacted to Fatio's dramatic displays, first in private and finally in public, of his admiration for Newton and his conviction that Leibniz had stolen the calculus from Newton. If letters were exchanged between the two men, or if (as is unlikely enough, in fact) Newton disclosed his personal judgment of Fatio to others, the documents have failed to survive.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Philosophers at WarThe Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz, pp. 110 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980