Question

When speaking about his numerous and important contributions to science, Isaac Newton said: "If I have been able to see further, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants."

Explain how this statement relates to scientific knowledge, theories, and laws changing over time.

Answer 1

What it means is that he wouldn't have been able to get where he got if it hadn't been for the scientific achievements of his predecessors. If it hadn't been for these "giants" that enabled him to see so far, he wouldn't have been able to make all the discoveries that he did. For those coming after him, he was a giant that enabled them, and so laws and theories and scientific knowledge always increases based on the knowledge before it.