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Full Idea
The maxim that there is no motion which has not its origin in another motion, according to the laws of mechanics, leads us again to the Prime Mover.
Gist of Idea
Mechanics shows that all motion originates in other motion, so there is a Prime Mover
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Principle of Life and Plastic Natures [1705], p.194)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.194
A Reaction
This is Leibniz's endorsement (uncredited) to Aquinas's First Way. It is hard to see how the laws of mechanics could have anything to say about the origin of movement. And doesn't the law say that the motions of God need a mover?
Related Idea
| 19416 | Not all of matter is animated, any more than a pond full of living fish is animated [Leibniz] |
| 19417 | All substances are in harmony, even though separate, so they must have one divine cause [Leibniz] |
| 19418 | Mechanics shows that all motion originates in other motion, so there is a Prime Mover [Leibniz] |
| 19420 | Death and generation are just transformations of an animal, augmented or diminished [Leibniz] |
| 19419 | Not all of perception is accompanied by consciousness [Leibniz] |
| 19421 | Souls act as if there were no bodies, and bodies act as if there were no souls [Leibniz] |
| 19422 | Every particle of matter contains organic bodies [Leibniz] |