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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/8/25 8:16 AM, glen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:62a2ff94-c354-4f7b-abae-e56d97e81dee@gmail.com">Yeah.
OK. After thinking about it a bit, Newton definitely qualifies. I
guess I've always felt that he *wanted* to be a private seeker and
was too insecure and triggered by criticism ... something I don't
think is natural to scientists</blockquote>
<br>
<p></p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:62a2ff94-c354-4f7b-abae-e56d97e81dee@gmail.com">. The
old aphorism that highlights the paradox goes something like: If
your mind is too open, everything falls out, too closed, nothing
gets in.</blockquote>
If your mind is too open, just about anyone can pour just about
anything into it?<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:62a2ff94-c354-4f7b-abae-e56d97e81dee@gmail.com"> Newton
just seems like he really wanted to be a mystic. But he was too
often too correct and made a pesky wake he couldn't ignore. My
naive and idealistic understanding of the Good Scientists™ I like
are rapid updaters who change their minds all the time when
presented with new information, but simultaneously great
world-builders such that the new information wobbles into the
network of facts organically.
<br>
<br>
But I guess because he was so thin-skinned, he helped develop the
rigor good criticism needs, even if he didn't seem very friendly
about it. I guess it's like he didn't believe science (or alchemy)
was *social* ... more Platonic. And that just seems anti-science
at this point. Math? Yes. Science? No. The "mad scientist" trope
goes hand-in-hand with Great Man Theory. But clearly, Musk has
demonstrated we haven't matured out of that nonsense yet.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>He was definitely a creature of his time... <br>
</p>
<p>his reputation as an alchemist (now) exceeds that as a natural
philosopher/scientist:</p>
<p data-start="878" data-end="1083">John Maynard Keynes, who bought
many of the papers, said:<br>
</p>
<blockquote data-start="1086" data-end="1170">
<p data-start="1088" data-end="1170">"Newton was not the first of
the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians."</p>
</blockquote>
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