2004
Volume 51, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 0165-4322
  • E-ISSN: 3050-9947

Samenvatting

Abstract

This article explores the significance of the Newtonian world system in relation to eighteenth-century thought. On the one hand, Newton’s work is employed for apologetic purposes; on the other, a growing conviction emerges that the Newtonian laws governing motion are sufficient to uphold cosmic order. While Newton – like Descartes – believed that matter is essentially passive, requiring divine intervention to set it in motion, a fundamental shift occurs: matter is increasingly seen as inherently active and capable of operating independently of God. This materialism extends not only to the planetary system but also to living nature. There is a growing plea to exclude God from scientific inquiry, best expressed in Laplace’s (perhaps apocryphal) reply to Napoleon, who asked where God fit in his system of the world: “Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis.” God becomes a . At best, He remains as the distant God of the philosophers.

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