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Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Isaac Newton
1687
Before the scientific revolution, the foundation of mathematics and physics were slowly perfected by many of reining empires ranging from ancient Egypt, to China, the Muslim world, all leading to the Europe’s scientific revolution. Johannes Kepler was one of the first to monitor the motion of the planets, these findings made the heliocentric theory plausible. Galilleo Galilei furthered Kepler’s work by focusing on gravity and motion. From this Gallileo formed the Law of falling bodies, which states that all objects are affected by earth’s gravity at the same rate of acceleration (Fiero).
Both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz contributed significantly to the field of mathematics and physics and were seen as two of the greatest minds the scientific revolution produced. Unfortunately both Newton and Leibniz share shared a bitter feud over the intellectual ownership of one of the new fields of mathematics that was created in Naturalis Mathematica Principia (Kawalski). It was reported that Newton had created calculus in 1666 but refused to publish any of his works (Fiero). Newton refusal to publish may be largely be due to his theory color and certain deductions were criticized by his peers leaving Newton vowing to never publish any again (Eves). Leibnitz did write letters to Newton, but nothing relating to Calculus was ever mentioned. In 1677 Leibniz had independently created Calculus, and in 1684 he published his work in Acta Eruditonum, Newton was never mentioned in any of the works. At first each acknowledged the others work but soon after each Newton claimed to be the inventor of Calculus. Members of Newton’s faction accused Leibniz of plagiarism, while Leibnitz challenged Newton to complete some mathematical challenges. A frustrated Leibnitz turned to the Royal Society to help settle the discussion; unfortunately the head of Royal Society was none other than Newton. Royal Society leaned heavily towards Newton, and Leibnitz discovered Newton's role in the Royal Society’s decision causing only more hatred among the two mathematicians. Eventually Newton was given credit for the creation of Calculus and both remained bitter enemies for the remainder of each other’s lives (Kowalski). Both Mathematicians invented Calculus independently and both are equally credited, Leibnitz's contribution was strictly mathematical, while Newton uses this new form of Mathematics and applies it to his surroundings leading to the creation of physics (Eves).

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Newton's Mathematica Principia would go and become the foundation for the field of physics, for the next 200 years only to be challenged by the Einstein's relative physics. In the 200 years Mathematica Principia’s core foundation would never disproven, instead additions and modifications refined Newton's work (Principia). The piece was also seen as a philosophical work inspiring the premise for hard determinism. Mathematica Principia main use was to use the laws of motion and gravity to explain the laws the cosmos and nature functioned as a whole. Many of newton’s followers believed that if Newton’s rules applied to nature then our actions could be determined like any other event in nature. Pierre Simon la Place believed that if he knew the location and motion of any body of matter (planet, atom, or human body), he could predict the fate of such body in any point in time. This new philosophy denied the idea of free will and responsibility, and made many wonder if any of their actions allow the individual to take any form of responsibility for said actions.
Newton’s Mathematica Principia central ideas seem ahead of its time. Many of the mathematical and physics courses I’ve enrolled into all use many of these ideas in one way or another. Newton’s method was how Newton found the roots of any equation that passed along the X-axis and is currently used in most calculators for that very reason. My experience with this tedious number crunching equation makes me value the time and effort put into his work.
Whether Newton’s Mathematica Principia‘s is one of the most important accomplishments of mankind, and whether we preserved or not, it will never leave us.. If future generations decide to ignore and make the mistake to forget any the Newton’s work, civilization would enter a second dark age. It is impossible to ignore Newton’s contributions, since they are imbedded in a wide scope of subjects ranging from economics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, biology, engineering, and even philosophy.

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Works Cited
Eves, Howard. “An introduction to the history of Mathematics”. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: University of Maine. 1976. Print. This book displayed the history of Newton and Leibnitz’s Calculus.
Fiero Gloria K “The Humanistic Tradition”, Sixth Edition, Books 3 through 6, by. McGraw-Hill, 2011. This E-book gave Newton’s predecesors, influences, and basic information his work.
Kowalski, Kathiann M. "A Quarrel: Who Invented Calculus?."Odyssey 20.6 (2011): 17. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Described how the conflict developed between Newton and his rival Leibnitz

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"Principia." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. This article showed how significant Newton’s contribution was.

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Solomon Robert, Higgins Kathleen, and Martin Clancy. “Introducing Philosophy” Oxford University Press: New York. 2012. Print This book explained the impact of Newton’s work with philosophy leading to hard determinism.

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