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(2002) What was mechanical about mechanics, Dordrecht, Springer.
From efficient to final causes
the origin of the principle of least action
J. Christiaan Boudri
pp. 134-171
Voltaire, the glorifier of reason and the world, must certainly have looked back on his time in Berlin with ambivalent feelings. After the death of his sweetheart the Marquise du Châtelet he spent some time at Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's country residence in Potsdam. He soon proved to be more imaginative and more entertaining than the then President of the Royal Academy, Maupertuis, so that they quickly became enemies.1 The fact that Voltaire had been bypassed for the presidency six years earlier, in favor of Maupertuis, may also have played a role. Voltaire was bent on revenge, which can indeed be sweet.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-3672-5_5
Full citation:
Boudri, J. (2002). From efficient to final causes: the origin of the principle of least action, in What was mechanical about mechanics, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 134-171.
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