Richard S. Westfall (April 22, 1924—August 21, 1996) was an American professor, biographer and science historian. He is best known for his biography of Sir Isaac Newton and his expertise on the scientific revolution of the 17th century. April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... Sir Thomas Malory wrote the most famous fictional biography of the Middle Ages with Le Morte dArthur about the life of King Arthur. ... Sir Isaac Newton in Knellers portrait of 1689. ... In the history of science, the scientific revolution was the period that roughly began with the discoveries of Kepler, Galileo, and others at the dawn of the 17th century, and ended with the publication of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 by Isaac Newton. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...

Life

Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, Westfall graduated from high school in 1942 and enrolled at Yale University. His time at Yale was interrupted by two years of service in World War II, but he returned to complete his B.A. degree in 1948. He subsequently earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale, with a dissertation entitled Science and Religion in Seventeenth Century England. The work was an early example of his lifelong interest in the history of science and its relationship to religion. Horsetooth Rock, atop Horsetooth Mountain, is often used as a symbol of Fort Collins. ... Yale redirects here. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B.) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... A Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic masters degree awarded by universities in North America and the United Kingdom (excluding the ancient universities of Scotland and Oxbridge. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The scope of this article is limited to the empirical sciences. ...

Westfall taught history at various universities in the 1950s and 1960s: California Institute of Technology (1952-53), State University of Iowa (1953-57), and Grinnell College (1957-63). He began teaching at Indiana University in 1963 and worked his way up the faculty ranks until his retirement in 1989 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He earned many awards, most notably fellowships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Literature. He died in 1996 at the age of 72. The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Old Cap or Old Capitol Building, Iowas first state capitol building and a university landmark. ... Grinnell College is a liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S.. It was founded on June 10, 1846, when a group of transplanted New England Congregationalists with strong social-reformer backgrounds organized themselves as the Trustees of Iowa College. ... Indiana University, founded in 1820, is a nine-campus university system in the state of Indiana. ... The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Royal Society of Literature is the senior literary organisation in Britain. External link The Royal Society of Literature Categories: Literature stubs | Literature of the United Kingdom ...

Works

In 1980 Westfall published what is widely regarded as the definitive biography of Isaac Newton, Never at Rest, which won the Pfizer Award, the highest honor from the History of Science Society. Westfall considered Newton a driven, neurotic, often humorless and vengeful individual. Despite these personal faults, Westfall ranked Newton as the most important man in the history of western European civilization. Westfall published a condensed and simplified version of the biography as The Life of Isaac Newton in 1993. The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science, founded in 1924 by George Sarton. ... A neurosis, in psychoanalytic theory, is an ineffectual coping strategy that Sigmund Freud suggested was caused by emotions from past experience overwhelming or interfering with present experience. ... A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. ...

Westfall published other books on the history of science, including The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanism and Mechanics (1971), Force in Newton's Physics: the Science of Dynamics in the Seventeenth Century (1971), and Essays on the Trial of Galileo (1989). Late in life he constructed a database of information on the lives and careers of more than 600 scientists of the early modern era, his Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16th and 17th Centuries, which he made available to other researchers. A database is an organized collection of data. ... For a List of scientists, see: List of anthropologists List of astronomers List of biologists List of chemists List of computer scientists List of economists List of engineers List of geologists List of inventors List of mathematicians List of meteorologists List of physicists Scientist pairs List of scientist pairs See...

Reference

• Religion, Science, and Worldview : Essays in Honor of Richard S. Westfall, edited by Margaret J. Osler and Paul Lawrence Farber, Cambridge University Press 1985 ISBN 0521304520

External links

• Galileo Project page for Richard S. Westfall
• New York Times obituary for Richard S. Westfall
• Indiana University archives notes on Richard S. Westfall