Single Idea 19418

[catalogued under 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof]

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 Reference

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?

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