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OldWolf2 t1_j2ajhig wrote

I'd like to add that Newton and his contemporaries founded modern science -- the worldview that there is actually an objectively correct explanation for natural phenomena, and we can work on finding that out through thought and experimentation.

You will have noticed there are still many people today who don't hold that worldview, sadly; but in Newton's time and earlier, this described pretty much everyone outside of a select few, who were often considered heretics, witches, that sort of thing for their troubles .

Truth was what the church said it was and most people didn't have the concept of thinking about why apples fall, they just did. A large part of what Newton is remembered for is the notion of investigating this kind of thing at all .

(NB. My comment is Eurocentric like the question ; attitudes may have differed in other civilization centres ).

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