He spent most of his time alone, building miniature mills, machines, carts, and other inventions. Newton exhibited signs of bipolar disorder early in life he was a solitary child who didn’t engage in games with other children. This may be partly true, but no matter how many creative inspirations one gets from the manic state and how extraordinary the achievements are as a result of it, one thing is clear to all who suffer from it – this is an illness that can destroy lives and cause tremendous pain for all connected to the sufferer.
It was argued that depression made one a perfectionist and mania led to intense periods of productivity, faith in ones own talent, and the need to prove oneself right. Romantic writers often called manic depression ‘a disease of men of genius’, while others considered it an essential element for creativity. Newton’s biography is a catalog of the symptoms of bipolar (or manic depressive) disorder, an illness he suffered from most of his life. However, there is a part of Newton’s life that is less talked about, the part that concerns his character and its connection to his discoveries.
In large part because of Newton, the empirical approach, based on the rule that you must try out ideas by testing them, became the norm. Newton’s laws enabled measurements of actual distances, speeds, and weights to be calculated, laying the foundation of modern inventions from the steam engine to the space rocket. Much of what we know about Newton is based on his extraordinary contributions to science such as the three major laws of motion (the principles of inertia, force, action and reaction), the law of gravitation, and his discoveries in optics, astronomy, and mathematics. He is sitting naked on a rock at the bottom of the ocean leaning over a scroll, and measuring the symbol of the Trinity.īlake’s depiction of Newton’s persona is symbolic, but it is closer to the real Newton than any other artistic rendition. In his painting ‘Newton’, the British poet and painter, William Blake, represents Newton as a divine geometer.
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