Isaac Newton & Socrates
Jonathan E. Harrison
Those who are aware of who Newton and Socrates were and felt that they were very different may be surprised to find the common threads they wove in their respective lives. Born roughly 2,000 years apart, though Newton and Socrates expressed themselves in two different ways, they both possessed a deep desire to find the ultimate truth that permeates all of life in their respective fields of endeavor and both suffered the burdens of persecution that great minds throughout history experience. This is the common thread of all great men in any time or place. Those who are interested in the life and history of both a great scientific and philosophical mind may find material to open doors in this comparison. Both Isaac Newton and Socrates were extraordinary men who formed a foundation for the world and the ways we perceive reality today. They differ in many ways and yet have more common threads than perhaps many have cared to mention.
Newton himself was quite an introverted individual. He had given much of his time to alchemy and the occult, which had been a result of his search for the laws that govern the known universe. Much later were his groundbreaking works The Principia Mathematica and Opticks, which were his works on principles in math and light, revealed to the public, which sent massive shock waves through the scientific intelligentsia and its Royal societies like an earthquake.
In the course of his life, his work was threatened by the held religious beliefs of his time. As a result of his mysterious character, he withheld his most profound findings until the day he died. ¡°By never telling anyone what he really thought,¡± Newton was not put to death, but died at a ripe old age, working with the high societies of his time at Cambridge University and elsewhere (Sun Ra).
On the other hand, Socrates was an extroverted man who was quite frequently out and about teaching the youth about methods he realized in using logic to challenge commands from authorities. ¡°They [the youth] learned to scrutinize, and they learned to be skeptical¡±(Otteson). He spent much of his life mission towards philosophy and metaphysics, and eventually, he had to face the court. He was put to death for supposedly corrupting the young minds of his own time, yet his name survived as one of recognition. He was a model for courage in the face of opposition and was clearly willing to die for those principles that he taught. Even though he was offered a way to escape the death sentence through his friends, he rejected the offer and stood up among the court and faced the full force of his opposition head-on.
Regrettably, both Sir Isaac Newton and Socrates were not understood in their times and were forced through a common crucible of painful rejection and misunderstandings. Both were strongly rejected in their own times simply because ¡°the relentless pursuit of the truth produces enemies¡± (Otteson). Despite the two different worlds they came from and their opposing personalities, they were both extremely brilliant and felt a force within themselves to reveal their discoveries. They both were deeply inspired as a result of these traits, and as a result of their actions alike, they both suffered severe threats by those in power around them, including the Roman Church, which was the leading authority on the religious beliefs of the people of the day. Though both of these men suffered for what they did, they both realized deep underlying currents in life that they were compelled to share with others around them and challenge.
Among the similar aspects of these two men, the most intriguing of all was their self-affirmations to divine guidance for the common good. For Newton, he claimed that he was God¡¯s instrument through mathematics, and for Socrates, he compared his actions to Hercules.
Reaching past the differences of Newton and Socrates and into what binds them together in the annals of history, or any great men for this matter, the thread of purpose and a will can be found. Upon seeing this common bond between them, one really cannot escape the possibility of an evolutionary purpose for all of mankind to realize. Could there really be something in process underneath what we see and experience on the superficial levels of life? In all times and ages there are men who go misunderstood, misrepresented, and accused of going against the grain of current beliefs, whether by the masses or by authorities. As history has had it, usually later does man recognize the underlying current beneath them, a current that reaches the same outcome in their intended audiences-an enlightenment of sorts. Isaac Newton and Socrates were two such men in their own times who shared this common bond in their respective ways.
Works Cited
Otteson, James R. ¡°Socrates and the Unending Trials of Impiety.¡± Department of Philosophy University of Alabama. 20 January 2000.
Sun Ra. ¡°Secret Apples.¡± The Cant. 19 May 2003. On-line. Google 13 October 2003. http://www.thecant.com/Columns/Sun_Ra/5.19.2003.html.