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Newton's Opticks and Brockes' Early Poetry
Author(s) -
John David G.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1982.tb01058.x
Subject(s) - poetry , philosophy , phenomenon , viewpoints , compendium , subject (documents) , natural philosophy , kepler , faith , literature , art history , epistemology , history , art , physics , linguistics , planet , library science , computer science , astrophysics , visual arts
Summary Newton's Opticks (1704) represents a landmark for man's scientific understanding of the phenomenon of light. His contemporary in Hamburg, Barthold Heinrich Brockes, probably first learned of Newton's theories through the second edition of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer's scientific compendium Physica oder Natur‐Wissenschaft (1711) which provided what was likely the first summary of Newton's findings in Germany. The poet Brockes integrated these scientific findings into his early poems. These reveal in general terms the poet's growning fascination with the phenomenon of light and, more specifically, numerous direct allusions to key sections of the Opticks . Most striking are the similarities between Newton's scientific explanation of sight in the human eye and Brockes' examination of the subject in “Die fünf Sinne.” While a tension existed in the early eighteenth century between scientific and theological accounts of natural phenomena, Newton and Brockes both managed to remain somehow faithful to both viewpoints. Neither abandoned his theological belief; yet their increased insight was the product not of religious faith but rather precise scientific observation and method.