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Articles

Huygens: A Scientist Among the Philosophers

Hugh Aldersey-Williams traces the philosophical connections of a polymath.

When the Dutch astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens died in 1695 at the age of sixty-six, the German philosopher Gottfried von Leibniz called his loss ‘inestimable’, and hailed him as the equal of Galileo and Descartes. “Helped by what they have done,” Leibniz wrote, “he has surpassed their discoveries. He is one of the prime ornaments of the age.” Indeed, Huygens discovered the rings around Saturn and detected the first moon of that planet. He also created the first accurate pendulum clock, among many other inventions.

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