SOURCE: "Newton and His Society," in The Annus Mirabilis of Sir Isaac Newton, 1666-1966, edited by Robert Palter, The M.I.T. Press, 1970, pp. 26-47.

In the following essay, Hill reviews the social and personal influences on Newton's life and work, suggesting that the most potent influences were Newton's Puritan upbringing and the post-revolutionary society in which he lived.

I

One way for me to approach the subject of Newton and his society would be to quote Professor Alexandre Koyré: "The social structure of England in the 17th century cannot explain Newton."¹ Then I could sit down. But of course we must gloss Koyré by emphasizing the word "explain." A complete explanation of Newton cannot be given in social terms. The historian, however, qua historian, is not interested in single causal explanations. The questions he asks are "Why here?", "Why now?" If science were a self-evolving chain of...