|
Roger Cotes
(10 Jul 1682 - 5 Jun 1716)
British mathematician and astronomer who edited the second edition of Newton's Principia.
|
Science Quotes by Roger Cotes (1 quote)
But shall gravity be therefore called an occult cause, and thrown out of philosophy, because the cause of gravity is occult and not yet discovered? Those who affirm this, should be careful not to fall into an absurdity that may overturn the foundations of all philosophy. For causes usually proceed in a continued chain from those that are more compounded to those that are more simple; when we are arrived at the most simple cause we can go no farther ... These most simple causes will you then call occult and reject them? Then you must reject those that immediately depend on them.
— Roger Cotes
Mathematical Principles (1729), 27.
See also:
- 10 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Cotes's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
