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Letters of Euler to a German Princess: On Different Subjects in Physics and Philosophy: Leonard Euler

Leonhard Euler (1707-83) was one of the greatest mathematicians of his own or any other age. Born at Basel in Switzerland and intended for the Calvinist ministry, his prodigious analytical gifts soon became apparent and led him to become one of the luminaries of the academies of Berlin and Saint Petersburg. During his stay in Berlin (1741-66), he was asked to provide some tuition in Natural Philosophy for Princess d'Anhalt Dessau, a niece of Frederick the Great. These justly renowned letters are the fruit of that royal request.

At the start of their correspondence Euler's royal pupil was a fairly ignorant girl - she had no knowledge of Natural Philosophy and almost no mathematics. Euler thus takes us left back to the basic notions of distance, time and velocity. But the letters progress quite swiftly on to more difficult aspects of physics: light and colour, sound, gravity, electricity and magnetism. From physics Euler leads us on to Natural Philosophy: the nature of matter, the mysterious origin of forces, the rival world-views of Newtonians and Cartesians. Here Euler seeks to separate the mathematical achievement of Newton, about which he has no doubts or reservations, from the physical interpretation put on his work by others. The Letters even take us beyond Natural Philosophy into metaphysics, dealing with the mind-body problem, free will and determinism, the nature of spirits, and the operation of Providence in the world of Nature. Here, Euler thinks, unaided human reason does not take us very far - some questions will be left unanswered awaiting divine illumination. In particular, he is very suspicious of the metaphysical system of Leibniz and Wolff, then at the height of its popularity in the learned circles of Germany.

These Letters to a German Princess are one of the great documents of the Enlightenment, and testament to the faith of the age in education. This faith is also evidenced in the progressive attitude to women's learning, making this a key work in the history of female education. Read today, the Letters still stand as a clear and thorough guide through the fundamentals of natural science and philosophy, and still succeed in Euler's aim - to excite in the reader the passion for learning.

--includes original notes, glossary of foreign and scientific terms, and c. 20 diagrams

--over 230 letters

--an important work in the history of science and philosophy, and the history of female education

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Amazing stuff - 200 years old book. Thanks.

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