Year: 1975
Type: article
Abstract: IT is probably fair to say that our knowledge of the progress made by Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren in explaining planetary motion has been due largely to an interest in the prehistory of Newton's Principia. 1 Research has often focused on questions arising from the priority dispute between Hooke and Newton and their different contributions are now much better defined.We appreciate more clearly the limitations of Hooke's work.Yet a better understanding of Newton's thinking during the 166os and 1670s 2 has served to emphasize the importance of Hooke's clear statement of the problem in his letters of 1679-80.A planet is continuously deflected from its rectilinear inertial path by a centripetal force varying inversely as the square of its instantaneous distance from the central body: what is the resulting orbit?In this article I shall examine the origin and early development of the ideas of Hooke and Wren and place them within the context of their association together and their discussions with other natural philosophers.Both men were educated within a living scientific tradition: they were helped and encouraged by older men, they collaborated with others in experiments, and they joined in informal discussions in groups.One of the aims of this study is to show how we can see a relation between their explanatory programmes and a background tradition in astronomy and cosmology, a tradition from which Newton was comparatively isolated.Interest in the origin of Hooke's ideas has led already to the rejection of Newton's claim that Hooke drew on Borelli's explanation of planetary * 13 Sleaford Street, Cambridge CBi 2PW.I want to thank an anonymous referee for some very helpful comments and the President and Council of the Royal Society for permission to quote from manuscripts in thefc' possession. 1 For studies of Hooke's work, see L. D. Patterson, 'Hooke's gravitational theory and its influence on Newton', Isis, xl (1949), 327-41, and xli (1950), 32-45; J. Lohne, 'Hooke versus Newton', Centaurus, vii (i960), 6-52; A. Koyre, 'An unpublished letter of Robert Hooke to Isaac Newton ', Isis, xliii (1952), 312-37, reprinted in Koyr£, Newtonian studies (London, 1965), chapter 5; A. Koyre, 'Hooke on gravitational attraction', ibid., pp.180-4; R-S.Westfall, 'Hooke and the law of universal gravitation', The British journal for the history of science, iii (1967), 245-61; F. F. Centore, Robert Hooke's contributions to mechanics (The Hague, 1970), chapter 5.For Wren, see P. D. Lawrence and A
Author: J. A. Bennett
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2028894909