1.5 Newton's Impact
      on Philosophy
•Suppose the Universe is made up of particles of matter interacting according to Newton's laws
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•Then it is a dynamical system, governed by a (very large!) set of differential equations
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•Given the starting positions and velocities of all particles, there is a unique outcome
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•This type of argument was a bombshell to scientists and philosophers
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•Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), a leading French mathematician, wrote extensively about the clockwork universe               @