Cohen Updates 370-Year-Old Translation

As if the mathematics weren't difficult enough, for the past 370 years scholars reading Isaac Newton's Principia have had to puzzle through a translation that hasn't been updated since Alexander Pope published the first "compleat" collection of his poetry.

Thomas Professor Emeritus of the History of Science I. Bernard Cohen '37 has unleashed the mysteries of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica--commonly referred to as the Principia--in the first English translation of the book since 1729.

The bulk of the Cohen's book, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy--which weighs in at an impressive 974 pages--consists of Newton's third and final edition of the Principia, although it includes footnotes referring to relevant text included in the other two editions.

Published with the new translation is Cohen's "A Guide to the Principia," a companion essay that introduces each section of the book and develops the main ideas.

"Some of the material is quite difficult for the reader," Cohen said. "This guide serves as a helper to understanding the concepts."

Students at Tufts University and the University of Western Ontario are already using Cohen's books.

In an interview with The Crimson, Cohen, who teaches a course at the Harvard Extension School and will be teaching at Boston College in the spring, seemed relieved, over a month after its release, that the book was finally published.

"I still look at the 950 pages of paper bound in that book, and ask myself, did I do that?" he said. "The difficulty is creating a translation that maintains the meaning of the original text. We know perfectly well what Newton is saying, and we know what his intentions were, but it often took us weeks to determine how to say it in English. It required creative energy--a lot of creative energy to translate hundreds of pages of very particular mathematical proofs."

Cohen began working on this book, together with a co-author, Anne Whitman, in 1974. In 1972, Cohen and Whitman published an edition of Principia, in Latin, that combined all three editions of Newton's Principia, showing the transformation of the work from the original to the third edition.

The publication of Cohen and Whitman's Latin edition was almost universally praised, according to Cohen. The comparison of Newton's three editions offered insight into the development of Newton's ideas, and shed light on the progression of Principia's important concepts.

The feedback was so strong and so positive, that Whitman and Cohen were strongly encouraged, by colleagues, to translate the work into English. Two years after their first book, Whitman and Cohen began their second monstrous project--the translation into English.

The only attempt to modernize the work in the past 370 years was a 1934 revision of Andrew Motte's 1729 translation.

However, Cohen called the book "full of errors" and was "as hard to understand as the original."

Whitman passed away in 1984, and Cohen has been working alone on the book since then.

Commenting on his research partner, Cohen said "I don't think there is anyone other than Anne Whitman who I could have worked with."

Cohen also mentioned the contributions of several other colleagues in the preparation of his book. George E. Smith, former chair of the philosophy department at Tufts University, R.S. Westfall, professor at Indiana University, Michael Nauenberg at Santa Cruz and Curtis Wilson at St. John's University.

Cohen, who retired from his faculty position in 1984, has dedicated many years to the study of Newton's work.

"My special field, the scientific revolution, focuses on the activities of the 16th and 17th centuries," he said. "Isaac Newton was a key figure, and many consider his Principia to be the high point of the revolution."

Cohen hopes that his translation will be of good use to students and scientists.

"There is a lot of scholarly interest in the book, not only from history of science departments, but public interest as well, because the book is so important," Cohen said.

"The book is being used," he said. "I hope to get good feedback on it. Bit by bit, we hope to be able to revise it and prepare a second edition."

Cohen's book is currently available in bookstores.