God within Physics

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,00, University of Salzburg, language: English, abstract: In his Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), Isaac Newton developed a revolutionary account of space, time, place and motion which consists of fundamentally different ideas in contrast to the ...

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,00, University of Salzburg, language: English, abstract: In his Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), Isaac Newton developed a revolutionary account of space, time, place and motion which consists of fundamentally different ideas in contrast to the previously held views of how the universe could look like. By including God in his theory, he links metaphysical questions to physics and thus explains in which sense God can be seen as a part of natural philosophy. (Janiak 2008: 163) In this paper, I argue for the claim that Newton’s account of the role of God is convincing. In section II, I will provide an overview of Newton’s ideas about space and time and especially the role of God within this system1. In the course of this overview, I will justify my claim by discussing the benefits Newton’s concept of God is able to deliver. In the conclusion, I will briefly summarize the results.