Work · Rationalism
The Principles of Natural Things (Principia)
First volume of his Opera philosophica et mineralia: a mechanical cosmology in the manner of Descartes that derives matter from a point set in motion and lets the planets form from the matter of the sun.
Introduction
The Principia appeared in 1734 in Dresden and Leipzig as the first of three volumes of Swedenborg’s Opera philosophica et mineralia; the other two dealt with iron and copper. Written in Latin in the manner of Descartes’ physics, it derives the whole of nature from a first mathematical point set in motion, from which ever larger particles and vortices arise. The solar system is described as formed from the matter of the sun, which is why later readers saw in the book an anticipation of the nebular hypotheses of Kant and Laplace. The work was read in its time as one of many mechanical cosmologies; its interest today lies in showing the natural philosopher Swedenborg was before his turn to theology.
More works by Emanuel Swedenborg
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