Ry b (0301kb)
voltaire on science
what is the main idea of this passage?
sir isaac newton is the greatest scientist of this era.
light comes from the sun in fewer than seven
minutes.
according to your cartesians [followers of descartes),
everything is performed by an impulsion, of which we
have very little notion; and according to sir isaac
newton, it is by an attraction, the cause of which is as
much unknown to us. at paris you imagine that the earth
is shaped like a melon, or of an oblique figure; at london
it has an oblate one. a cartesian declares that light exists
in the air; but a newtonian asserts that it comes from the
sun in six minutes and a half. the very essence of
things is totally how furiously contradictory
are these opinions!
the followers of descartes know more than those
who follow newton.
people still don't understand how the world works.