Western Culture Global Presents The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness. #6: Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was an English physicist, mathematician and astronomer who, among other important accomplishments, described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. Newton is arguably the father of modern physics and scientific certainty. Newton's accomplishments had two powerful impacts on humanity. First, Newton demonstrated more than any other scientist in history the lawfulness of nature. In other words, he helped show that the universe is ordered, natural and ultimately predictable -- as opposed to a chaotic realm controlled by inexplicable, supernatural forces. Second, his laws show the power of human reason to know and understand vast truths about the universe with certainty. This demonstration of the efficacy of the human mind would be a factor in bringing about the Age of Enlightenment (1680-1800). Bolstered with confidence from the achievements of Newton and others, intellectuals of this age sought to use reason to advance virtually every field and discipline. Although the Age of Enlightenment is long over, its achievements, such as the birth of the United States of America, the development of much of modern science and capitalism, are still today the motor for the world. To this we indirectly owe thanks to Sir Isaac Newton. Contrary to popular belief, Newton's laws have not been contradicted or overturned by any subsequent discovery. Within the scope of phenomena studied by Newton, his laws are still fully valid. Discoveries since Newton's time, however, have shown that his laws need to be modified in some respects for strong gravitational fields, atomic physics, and bodies moving at near light-speed. These phenomena do not overturn Newton's theory, however, because they are outside the context of the theory. Go to #7: Thomas Aquinas Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — Home Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Numerical Order Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Century Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Category
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