Physics in Minerva’s Academy

Early to Mid-Eighteenth-Century Appropriations of Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy at the University of Leiden and in the Dutch Republic at Large, 1687–c.1750

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This monograph explains how, in the aftermath of the battle over René Descartes’ philosophy, Newton’s natural philosophy found fertile ground at the University of Leiden. Newton’s natural philosophical views and methods, along with their underlying distinctions, seamlessly aligned with the University of Leiden’s institutional-religious policy, which urged professors and students to separate theology from philosophy. Additionally, these views supported the natural philosophical agendas of Herman Boerhaave, Willem Jacob's Gravesande, and Petrus van Musschenbroek. Newton’s natural philosophical program was especially useful in the three Leiden professors' project of reforming existing disciplines and providing them with epistemic legitimacy.
Copyright Year:
2025
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978-90-04-71616-2
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27 Jan 2025
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ISBN:
978-90-04-71615-5
Publication:
30 Jan 2025
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About MyBook
Steffen Ducheyne, Ph.D. (2006), is Professor of Philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is affiliated with the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science-The Centre Leo Apostel. He has published widely in the field of History and Philosophy of Science. He is the author of The main Business of Natural Philosophy: Isaac Newton’s Natural-Philosophical Methodology (Springer, 2017) and the editor of Reassessing the Radical Enlightenment (Routledge, 2017).
Acknowledgements

1 Isaac Newton and the University of Leiden
 1 ‘L’amour de la vérité m’avait conduit à Leyde’: the Academia Lugduno-Batava and Its Role in the Diffusion of Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy
 2 The Religious Uses of Newton’s Natural Philosophy
 3 Early to Mid-Eighteenth-Century Dutch Interest in Newton’s Natural Philosophy: a Fresh Look
 4 Overview and Structure

Part 1: The Diffusion of Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy in and around Amsterdam, c.1687–1720


2 Adriaen Verwer and the First Edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia in the Dutch Republic
 1 Preamble: One of Newton’s ‘Most Valiant Soldiers’
 2 A doopsgezind Merchant in Amsterdam
 3 ‘Chaining the Hellhound’
 4 Entering the Republic of Letters
 5 Verwer as a Reader of the First Edition of the Principia
 6 The Foundations of Christian Faith and Natural Reason
 7 Conclusion

3 Using One’s Talents to Honour God: Lambert ten Kate and Newton’s Natural Philosophy
 1 Lambert ten Kate: a Versatile Amsterdam Doopsgezinde
 2 Worldly Vanities and Christian Virtues
 3 The Impact of the Second Edition of the Principia
 4 Improving on Newton’s Musical Division of the Spectrum and Fortifying the Proof of God’s Being and Governing with ‘More Than a Hundred Pillars’
 5 Conclusion

4 Countering the ‘Pernicious Pride to Know Everything:’ Bernard Nieuwentijt on Newton as a Mixed Mathematician
 1 Curing pansophia through ‘Learned Ignorance’
 2 Medicine, Mathematics and Experimental Philosophy, 1675–96
 3 Het regt gebruik der werelt beschouwingen (1715): Nieuwentijt’s Physico-Theological and Biblical Attacks on Spinoza
 4 The Appropriation of Newton’s Principia in Het regt gebruik der werelt beschouwingen
 5 Gronden der zekerheid (1720): Nieuwentijt’s Epistemological-Methodological Attack on Spinoza
 6 Newton as a Mixed Mathematician
 7 Conclusion

Part 2: The Blossoming of Newton’s Natural Philosophy at the University of Leiden, c.1710–1762


5 Herman Boerhaave, the Introduction of Newton’s Natural Philosophy at the University of Leiden, and the Unshackling ‘the Bondage of Sectarianism’
 1 Introduction
 2 Descartes’s Philosophy at the University of Leiden
 3 Burchard de Volder and the Theatrum physicum
 4 Wolferd Senguerd’s Anglophilia
 5 The Education of the ‘communis Europæ sub initia hujus seculi Præceptor’
 6 Medicine, Method, and Boerhaave’s ‘Mathematicorum via’, 1701–1708
 7 The Introduction of Newton’s Work in Leiden: Boerhaave’s 1710–1711 ‘Praelectiones de methodo addiscendae medicinae’
 8 Boerhaave’s 1715 Rectoral Address
 9 Conclusion

6 Willem Jacob ’s Gravesande, physica, and ‘NEWTONI vestigiis insistere’
 1 Introduction
 2 From ’s-Hertogenbosch to Leiden, 1688–1707
 3 The Hague, Mathematics, the 1715–1716 Diplomatic Trip to England, and ‘loix particulières’
 4 ‘[V]ous faire voir l’estime que j’ai pour vous’: Defending Newton in the Journal litéraire de la Haye, 1713–c.1717
 5 Newton, ‘veræ Philosophiæ Instaurator’, and Moral Certainty: 1717 and Beyond
 6 Epistemological and Methodological Considerations in the Preface to the First Edition of Physices elementa mathematica: 1719 and Beyond
 7 ’s Gravesande’s Magnum Opus: a Bird’s-Eye View
 8 Machinae and Experiments Galore
 9 Conclusion

7 ‘Nullius partes sequor:’ Pieter van Musschenbroek and the Provisionalism and Fallibilism of Natural Philosophy
 1 Van Musschenbroek, ‘the Greatest Natural Scientists of Our Time’
 2 The Contours of Van Musschenbroek’s Life and Career
 3 Newton in Van Musschenbroek’s Orations and Writings for Students and Compatriots, 1723–1741: Nihil novi sub sole
 4 Beyond 1741: The Plot Thickens
 5 ‘The Doctrine of Firmness Will Always Escape the Sagacity of Mathematicians:’ Van Musschenbroek on Cohesion
 6 Conclusion

8 Conclusion
Bibliography
General Index
Specialists, Ph.D. students, and post-graduate students interested in early modern science and philosophy, history of universities, history of physics, and intellectual history.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xvi, 460pp
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004716162

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