GoodTaste
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Even though the new philosophy was not in the curriculum, it was in the air. Some time during his undergraduate career, Newton discovered the works of the French natural philosopher Descartes and the other mechanical philosophers, who, in contrast to Aristotle, viewed physical reality as composed entirely of particles of matter in motion and who held that all the phenomena of nature result from their mechanical interaction. A new set of notes, which he entitled “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae” (“Certain Philosophical Questions”), begun sometime in 1664, usurped the unused pages of a notebook intended for traditional scholastic exercises; under the title he entered the slogan “Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica veritas” (“Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth”). Newton’s scientific career had begun.
Source: Britannica Isaac Newton
I understand the behavior to usurp as worse than the behavior to plagiarize, that is why the author used "usurp" rather than "plagiarize" to emphasize Newton's wrongdoing. Am I on the right track?
Source: Britannica Isaac Newton
I understand the behavior to usurp as worse than the behavior to plagiarize, that is why the author used "usurp" rather than "plagiarize" to emphasize Newton's wrongdoing. Am I on the right track?