Isaac Newton. Alchemist, philosopher, heretic. (Q2856934)

This paper is the last unpublished manuscript of the late I. Saxl (1936--2009). The author reviews the question of Isaac Newton's rationality and the value of his work in the light of newly available manuscripts and scholarly literature. He draws especially on the works of B. J. T. Dobbs and S. D. Snobelen. The article discusses three aspects of Newton's intellectual legacy. The discussion of Newton's heretic theology comes first and is more thorough than the other two parts. The author sets Newton's ideas in the context of controversies surrounding the Holy Trinity since late Antiquity, and explains how Newton carefully concealed his heresy -- the author expresses his understanding for this position based on his own experience of totalitarian Communist ideology in former Czechoslovakia. Newton's alchemical writings and interests are introduced more briefly, as the relevant manuscripts (the list of which is in the appendix) had not yet been digitized at the time of writing. The third part concerns Newton's philosophy of nature, especially the question of natural laws and God's ability to act regardless of them. The author analyses in depth Newton's \textit{General Scholium} from the second edition of \textit{Principa} (1713) (see [\textit{I. Newton}, The principia: mathematical principles of natural philosophy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press (1999; Zbl 0961.01034)]). This document in the original Latin and its full Czech translations are appended at the end of the paper.NEWLINENEWLINEThe author concludes that Newton's irrational and premodern ideas have all too often been ignored by those who wanted to appropriate his legacy and created legends about him for their own projects (Albert Einstein's uncomprehending assessment of Newton's mystical ideas is cited).NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 1330.01007].