Originally Posted by Argos

With this thread I originally thought of discussing Newton´s departude from the modern scientific behavior. Of course Newton has represented an advance in human thinking. But he lacked a method. He had a powerful mind but lacked the understanding of the impact of his work on society, which I call responsibility, a modern scientific characteristic. And there´s all his superstition. Descartes had just finished his "discourse on the method", so you wouldn´t expect a full-fledge scientific behaviour those times. In fact, I find it amazing that gravity and calculus could come to light in the pre-scientific era, in spite of the "zeitgeist".