Matter And Motion: Toland And Spinoza

Abstract

John Toland and Spinoza were in a way kindred spirits. Toland is well known as one of early English Deists, although, in fact, he was an Irishman and did not like term 'Deist' at all. Moreover, he sometimes used terms 'pantheist' and 'Spinozist' interchangeably. Still, in his Letters to Serena he undertook to prove that the whole System of Spinosa is not only false, but also precarious and without any sort of Foundation. This criticism is subject of this chapter. The Letters to Serena were conceived sometime around 1702, while Toland was travelling in Holland and Germany and discussing his ideas with Leibniz. As central theme is matter and motion, theory of motion having been a basic element of 17th century natural philosophy. Descartes had reduced all natural phenomena to matter in motion. Matter and motion were basic elements in Cartesian physics. Keywords: John Toland; Letters to Serena ; local motion; Spinoza

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