Isaac Newton and French Revolution

Question

I need to write an essay on Isaac Newton's contribution to French revolution. Does anyone know Sir Isaac Newton's contribution to the French Revolution? I know Isaac Newton died before the French Revolution, but is it some law Newton made to help create some weapons or sort of things?

Thanks!

Matthewg · Accepted Answer

Isaac Newton was part of the 'Enlightenment Movement'. His was an entirely new way of thinking at the time (17th C - 18th C), pushing forward a new age of secularism. The middle classes were an important part of the French Revolution, and were heavily influenced by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Newton.

People at the time used religion to explain everything, even to justify the absolute monarch's position. It wasn't Newton's laws as such that aided the cause of the French Revolution, but rather his way of thinking.

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Chreal

Following on from Matthewq's summary, some aspects of Newton's and Enlightenment thought you might want to examine in detail are:

1. Newton's scientific method: discovering 'natural laws' in the systematic observation of phenomena.

2. Deism: the belief that *** acted in accordance with natural laws.

3. The influence of Deism on Thomas Paine, and his subsequent influence in Europe.

4. The rationalistic aspects of the French Revolution: a belief that all questions of human law and government could be resolved by pure reason.

These steps should take you from Newton to the French Revolution.

One aspect of Newton's thought to be aware of: although we now think of him as a 'scientific' thinker, he himself considered his chief work to be his commentaries on various books of the Bible. He would have been distraught to discover that these are now largely neglected.

This quotation (from Wordsworth's 'Prelude', Book III) often turns up in discussions of Newton's thought:

'...Newton, with his prism and silent face,
The marble index of a mind forever
Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.'

MrP

Matthewg · Answer

Thanks for making that clearer MrP. It's true that Enlightenment thinkers didn't rubbish religion completely - many of them absorbed it into their theories. One of the most important Englightenment quotations is by Kant, 'The starry sky above me, the moral law within me.' This was the belief that common law was transcendant, and came to people through ***.

It is also a fallacy that all the Enlightenment thinkers tried to usher in a democratic government. Many of them believed in what they called the 'enlightened despot'. Traces of this idea can even be seen in contemporary France, where Chirac is actually an elected monarch.

MrPedantic · Answer

Yes, I'd agree, Matthewq.

Are you ok with this now, Chreal?

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

no of course not ,  you will find everything  in  studies about Kant  ..  Kant used Newton and Rousseau works   to think the  " philosophy of right "

Anonymous · Answer

although cambiridge was an outstanding center of learning ,the spirit of the scientife revolution had yet to penetrate its ancient and some what assifd curricalum.

Isaac Newton and French Revolution

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