Home – Home – Jornals – Philosophy of Sciences 2025 number 6

The ratio of appeals to the work of Descartes, on the one hand, Newton and, on the other hand, Voltaire, is considered. Newton highlighted both the attention to Descartes's that he, Newton, assessed positively, and that in which their positions were not only significantly different, but mutually exclusive. Voltaire paid special attention to his comparison of the contributions of Descartes and Newton to the creation of modern science. While appreciating the corresponding achievements of Newton, Voltaire emphasized that it was Descartes who had the merit of directing European science "along the path of truth", that is, the path on which successes were then multiplied by Newton. At the same time, when considering Voltaire's implementation of this comparative assessment of the positions of Descartes and Newton, it was recorded that they paid attention to those components of Descartes' views that Voltaire assessed as erroneous. At the same time, manifestations of inconsistency in the worldview and philosophical positions of Voltaire himself were recorded. He argues that the explanation of the movement of anything in the universe is impossible without recognizing an external source from him. Voltaire himself declared God to be such an external source of movement for everything bodily, calling him the supreme mind having a will. At the same time, Voltaire assesses the same position of Descartes as erroneous. Voltaire also recognizes, definitely in contrast to Descartes, a person with independent activity. It is emphasized that when Voltaire evaluates certain positions of Descartes as erroneous, he does this from the standpoint of taking into account the achievements, first of all, in the science of nature directly by Newton, which provided for the new European philosophy the prospect of establishing a distinctly materialistic component.