Isaac Newton, A Chiaroscuro-obscure Man

The most interesting thing about Isaac Newton is that he was quite contradictory. Although we mainly know him as the father of modern physics, in reality he spent much more time on mystical matters. Although we see him as a model of rationality, his life was quite irrational.

Behind the extraordinary scientist who formulated the universal law of gravitation, there was a man who fantasized, used his imagination and tormented about what he was feeling and feeling.

Although many classify him as the greatest scientist of all time, he devoted much of his life to alchemy, to the secret messages of the Bible… to madness.

Isaac Newton is perhaps the greatest proof that reason and unreason can coexist in the same human being, and that they are not mutually exclusive. It is also a model of high intelligence applied to hard work, based on rigorous observation and method, and all of that is simply brilliant.

Isaac Newton had an unhappy childhood

Isaac Newton was born under unfavorable circumstances. His father died three months before his birth. He was born prematurely, so small and frail that no one thought he would survive. Against all odds, he survived.

His mother remarried a man named Barnabas Smith, who did not want to care for the children of others. So he sent Isaac to his own parents, whom Newton knew as his grandparents. Their relationship with the boy was quite toxic. Later, Newton made a list of his sins, including the desire to burn his grandparents alive.

When he was ten years old, his stepfather died. So he returned to live with his mother and two new brothers. At the age of 12, his mother sent him to a boarding school.

During those years he learned Latin and mathematics and also studied the Bible. He was a weak and lonely child who didn’t stand out much in class. That’s why the teachers always let him sit in the back row.

A restless and hostile young man

Isaac Newton stuttered for most of his life. He was also a sickly person who did not interact much with his peers. If he did, it was to make bad jokes or attack them in some way.

He decided to become more studious after a fight with a classmate whom he somehow publicly defeated and humiliated.

He spent a lot of time in his room. There he began to build mechanical objects, models and various devices. In addition, he studied hard and was curious about everything.

Isaac met Catherine Storer when he was very young, the only woman he possibly had an affair with. He made doll houses for her and offered them as gifts. However, the relationship doesn’t go any further than that and historians actually think Isaac Newton died a virgin.

At the age of 18, Isaac Newton enrolled at the University of Cambridge. He basically learned on his own, but found several teachers who could teach him something.

He soon got in touch with the Royal Academy of Sciences, which expressed interest in his findings and devices. It was also at that time that the first scientific debates arose, which Newton sustained throughout his life.

A tormented genius

Isaac Newton had two nervous breakdowns. The first took place in 1693 and the second about 1703. During those periods he did not eat or sleep. He was very depressed and paranoid. He isolated himself and mistrusted everyone.

Meanwhile, he formulated the law of gravitation and the laws of mechanics. Although his contemporaries didn’t like him, he quickly became a household name for being simply brilliant. He held various academic positions and was even a member of the English Parliament, a position in which he basically did nothing.

Newton devoted the last thirty years of his life to religious studies and the occult. He believed that he was divinely chosen to decipher secret messages from the Bible. He then pointed out that the world would end in 2060. He also stated that the Catholic Church was the beast of the Apocalypse and that Moses was an alchemist.

In his last years, he was morally distraught by a bitter argument with Leibniz and other physicists. In addition, he suffered from kidney stones and died as a result of this condition. His memory is often honored in many ways.