Saturday Class - What is "Happiness" in our Declaration of Independence? - July 18, 2026

[00:00:00]Hi there. So, I'm finally getting into the weeds about livenetsian philosophy and what is meant by the term happiness and the declaration what livets uh meant to convey in his analysis of happiness and how that was transmitted to Lord Bowling Brookke Henry St. John Lord Bowling Brookke and then from him into the colonies. And we took a little diversion last week because I saw that movie Young Washington and was so excited about it because there was an example that I had not been aware of of how George Washington, the young George Washington was influenced through this linen to bowling broke to the colonies transmission of ideas.

[00:00:58]So uh this time we are going to dig into the idea of of happiness. Uh we'll just go right ahead with the next slide or the first slide.

[00:01:19]So this is from live a short piece. It's only about a page long uh titled on felicity.

[00:01:29]Felicity could be translated also as happiness. So they they go back and forth and the terms felicity, happiness, joy, pleasure are all in translation. I'm not familiar enough with either the French or the Latin which lightnet writes in to know what the nuances are among these terms.

[00:01:58]So um you know what I let me take one second just to turn off my my chats. They're uh so distracting these chats chat setting.

[00:02:22]Okay, I think that's that does it. Sorry about that.

[00:02:29]So this is live 1694 and he's saying wisdom is the science of happiness and is what must be studied above all else.

[00:02:43]And his point here is that the science of happiness encompasses all the other sciences. Economics, politics, mathematics, physics, and even theology is absolutely integrated into the science of happiness.

[00:03:10]And we're going to we're going to revisit Linets's experiences as a as a young man as a 27y old when he first visits Paris coming in from from Germany. He's a diplomat on behalf of the Duke of Mines and he comes into into Paris and joins the Paris Academy of Sciences and he's there for four years and it's during that time that he really develops his his fundamental philosophy and and sciences and the calculus which he's which he's famous for. And we're we're we're going to go through that pretty thoroughly. So the next slide.

[00:03:58]So these are the two main characters we're looking at. Uh Linets is on the left. Bowling Broke is is on the right.

[00:04:07]He's in his parliamentary uniform there. The their lives overlap.

[00:04:13]Their active lives are from 1701 to 1716.

[00:04:20]1701 is when bowling broke enters the parliament as a 22 year old.

[00:04:27]Linenets is about 35 years older than Bowling Brookke and he livenets dies in 1716.

[00:04:35]So 1701 to 1716 is is when they overlap.

[00:04:39]Bowling broke dies in 1751. So we've got more to talk about after Linus' death in terms of what Bowling Broke is doing. So the next slide.

[00:04:54]So I'm going to review. If you've listened to the first class, you've already seen this quote from live. The next slide will be a quote from Bowling Brook along the same lines. This kind of is the setting for the ideas the heart of the idea of that we find in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with the unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So we have linenets here from his discourse on metaphysics 1686. It's it's an early work. It's within within nine or 10 years after he leaves the Paris Academy. And this is his first comprehensive work that goes through the sciences works it his way up to this idea that God has created the best of all possible worlds and that lays the basis for this idea at the conclusion of the discourse on metaphysics. The leness says God is the monarch of the most perfect republic and the happiness of this city of God is his principal purpose. You see, livveness by this time is confident enough to tell you that he knows what God's principal purpose is.

[00:06:23]So he says, "Happiness is to persons what perfection is to beings." And we're going to talk more later about this idea of perfection.

[00:06:31]Happiness is to persons what perfection is to beings. In the moral world which constitutes the noblest part of the universe, the primary purpose must be to extend the greatest happiness possible.

[00:06:44]And he uses the word must. So next slide.

[00:06:50]And then we have bowling broke. The idea of a patriot king. This is his major work. This is this was wildly popular in the colonies and major influence on the declaration.

[00:07:04]The toast in the taverns at the time was a patriot king or none. And of course it ended up being none. But that toast came from this this work by Bowling Brookke 1749.

[00:07:20]He says a divine right for a king to govern govern ill is an absurdity to assert is blasphemy.

[00:07:29]So he's taking on this question of the divine right of kings which is the key philosophical issue in throughout the colonies. He says God has made us to desire happiness. He has made our happiness dependent on society and the happiness of society dependent on good or bad government. His intention therefore was that go government should be good and if man may be said without profaness to imitate God in any case this is the case. So the next slide then just a repeat of this quote from Benjamin Franklin from a previous class just to give you the setting of how influential the idea of a patriot king. this this book was at the time. So, this is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.

[00:08:23]He's putting out into the Pennsylvania Gazette, a promotion. It's like a promo kind of thing for the new hot book that he's running off of his own press there in Philadelphia. So, Franklin says, "By all accounts, from Great Britain, no piece ever published there has had so great a sale. is in almost everybody's hands and the general subject of com conversation. Okay, next slide.

[00:08:54]Now we're going to dig in a little bit and looking at this term happiness and I won't say that livvenets is giving us here a definition of happiness. It's it's a little bit like reading a dialogue from Plato where he may start out with the students asking Socrates what is justice and they go through some examples of justice and that doesn't really get to the essence of things and then then then they're on a roll and they're talking on a higher higher level and by the end you really don't have a pat definition of justice but you've got you've you've gained the the the wisdom to have an approach to discovering what justice is. So this is Linet's writing to Christian Wolf, one of his students, 1715.

[00:09:49]He says, "In morals, I set up our happiness as an end. This I define as a state of enduring joy. Joy I define as an extraordinary predominance of pleasure. For in the midst of joy, we can sense certain sorrows, but sorrows which are hardly to be considered in comparison with the pleasures. Moreover, it is not necessary. It moreover, it is necessary that the joy be enduring so that it not be withdrawn by a subsequent greater sadness by chance. And then he's going to go on um to talk about pleasures kind of an effort to define pleasures. I'm before I get to that ending to this letter, I'm going to interject with the next slide. Go ahead Tony. This is just a little citation from on Phil Felicity which we started off with the quotation about wisdom is the science of happiness. from there. Uh so it's the same piece lightnet saying happiness is a lasting state of pleasure. Thus it is good to abandon or moderate some pleasures which can be harmful by causing pains or by preventing better and more lasting pleasures. So that's that's a little bit more of a sense of what he means by by pleasure. I think that he doesn't go through this in the letter to Christian Wolf because Wolf is one of his highest level students and this is is sort of a basic thing that livets repeats a lot in different different of his writings. So the next slide back to the letter from Wolf or to Wolf Linet says furthermore pleasure is the sensation of perfection. Perfection is the harmony of things. And we're we're gonna go into some uh detail on what he means by perfection. Perfection is the harmony of things. So we're going to look more closely at that. So while likeness is trying to define perfection, he's giving us these new words which we we want to define further. And it kind of kind of goes like that. So he he proceeds perfection is the harmony of things or the state where everything is worthy of being observed. That is the state of agreement or identity in variety and the importance of variety. Again another term where we're curious about why is he throwing in that term variety. So I'm going to have the next slide will be a quote that delves into this question of variety. After that I'll have a little quote on the question perfection of perfection is the harmony of things.

[00:12:48]So we're going to look at variety next in the next slide Tony. So this is from again discourse on metaphysics. Less is saying God has chosen the most perfect world. That is the one which is at the same time the simplest in hypotheses and the richest in phenomenon. Again, we've got a minimum maximum problem here. Just like Linus has said that the God has chosen the most perfect world which gives us the maximum happiness and the minimum evil. So we we worked through that in the last class when we were looking at the Alexander Pope poem the essay on man which young George Washington was so excited about in the movie that that we saw. So uh Livess is saying God has chosen the most perfect world world. I want to say something about that.

[00:13:49]When liveness is talking about perfection and uh he means he's looking to degrees of perfection. He's looking to we have perfection but we could have the most perfect perfection. And of course in the preamble to the US Constitution, you have the in order to form a more more perfect union, you have this this concept popping up more the more perfect most perfect as as as he's saying here.

[00:14:26]And uh not just in the moral world, but let's let's look at the next next slide.

[00:14:33]Not only in the moral world is he talking about more perfect than degrees of perfection but also in the physical universe.

[00:14:43]So I I'll read through this. Less is saying we must also recognize a certain constant and unbounded progress in the whole universe in the physical universe not just the moral so that it always proceeds to greater development. And there is a ready answer to the objection that if this were so then the world should have become a paradise long ago.

[00:15:06]He says many substances have already attained great perfection. And then the next slide, however, because of the infinite divisibility of the continuum, there are always parts asleep in the abyss of things yet to be roused and yet to be advanced to greater and better things.

[00:15:27]Thus, progress never comes to an end.

[00:15:30]So, we're we're in a universe that is not static, that doesn't reach a certain level of perfection, but there's always the striving and and this part in the in the first line where he talks about the infinite divisibility of the continuum. Keep that in mind because we're we're going to explore in depth what livets liveness's idea of the infinite and in the calculus the infantessimal uh element of the of the calculus. We're we're going to take a deep dive into that later. So keep that in mind. So next slide.

[00:16:09]So here we have the electress Sophie and as we went through in the last couple of classes she is um the electress of what is called the electorate doesn't mean she's elected popularly but the aristocracy the various dukes and uh leaders of the fftoms that have divided up Germany they get together and they elect who should of of the possible heirs to the title who who should be elected to to serve. So Sophie is called the Electra Sophie. So she's not only a sovereign in Hanover, Germany, her territory, but because she is the granddaughter of James the first king of England, who came in after Queen Elizabeth in6006, we have uh Sophie being the heir to the throne in England.

[00:17:14]So next slide.

[00:17:17]And just to remind you, you have King James coming in after the death of Queen Elizabeth. He was the king of Scotland.

[00:17:23]So he comes to the throne to be the king of England and Scotland.

[00:17:28]His direct heirs over on the left are King Charles, King and then it was Charles 2 and then King James 2. King James 2 was only in power for three years. He he was a hardcore Catholic and the decision was made and and agreed to by the general pol populace, the members of parliament, all the leaders in England that they were going to put King James II aside and go to Protestants that may not be living in England itself, but that they would be willing to bring in. So you have Queen Mary there at the bottom, daughter of King James 2. She is living in Holland. She's married to King William of Orange, her second cousin, which you can see over there. And they they're they're brought in 1688 from Holland. And that's the disaster that we've been talking about. That's that's the Bank of Eng of Amsterdam coming in to to set up the Bank of England and bring in the oligarchical tradition from Venice and the Dutch into into England so that England is is brought under the domination of the Venetian Dutch oligarchy and financial blob that takes over England and sets up their their Bank of England and causes mayhem and destruction from there. So after uh William and Mary died then Queen Anne the sister of Queen Mary comes to the throne.

[00:19:24]After that would be in line is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth Stewart over there on the right which is our electress Sophie.

[00:19:37]And in 1714 what happened was that Queen Anne died and Sophie would have come to the throne together with her privy counselor Linets would have been right there on the throne of England. How different world history would have been. But Sophie died two months before Queen Anne died. And so it was her son, the foolish King George I who came to the throne. So the next slide.

[00:20:07]So now we go over and look at the family of Electra Sophie.

[00:20:14]She's got well she has more than the three siblings that we show here, but these are the three si siblings that affect history.

[00:20:26]So, we have uh the brother on the left, Charles Louie. And what we're really going to be concerned with here is his daughter, Elizabeth Charlotte, who becomes the Duchess of Orlaz. She marries Elizabeth Charlotte marries the brother of the French king, Louis 14.

[00:20:51]And that brother is the Duke of Orlan.

[00:20:53]She becomes the Duchess of Orlan and then her son Philip 2 when the father his father dies be takes up the title of the Duke of Orleian he's the regent for the child king Louis 15th when Louis 14th died his son and his grandson actually predesceased him the same the came almost the same year. So you have three Louisis wiped out. You have the king Louis 14th. You have the son, you have the grand grandson and the grandson's young child.

[00:21:39]Louis 15th comes to the throne. His regent is Philip II who would be the great nephew of Sophie. And this this Duke of Orlon, Philip I has a an very intriguing correspondence with Linet on a very high level and we're going to go through that. Then on the other side of Electra Sophie, you have her sister Louise Hollanding and her brother Prince Ed Edward. These two they they were actually older than Sophie and were next in line for the throne of England but they converted to Catholicism and moved to France. Luis Hollanding became an abbis um and very famous one. She had very intense correspondence with limenets on theology. Prince Edward died young and but his his daughters were again very close to to liveness even though they were living in in Paris and we're going to be be looking very closely at an Louise the granddaughter of Edward Annlouise the Duchess of Maine. She married the Duke of Maine. The Duke of Maine was the illegitimate son of Louis 14th, but Louis 14th was able to get the French assembly to agree to legitimize the Duke of Maine. So there was a contention between the Duke of Maine here and then the Duke of Orlon on on the other hand which we just the descendant of the brother of Sophie. So there was a contention between the Duke of Orlon and the Duke of Maine over who was next in line for the French throne. and the Duke of Orlon pretty pretty much came out on Todd. But this gives you an idea of what the influence would be of linenets through Electra Sophie through this family network. The Duchess of Maine, Ann Louise, the Duchess of Maine, was absolutely immersed in Lenitzian philosophy. She she set up a salon in in Paris that was the most popular salon in the in the country at the time. and she and her sort of maestro or MC of her salon was a key a leading figure from the Paris Academy of Sciences who was very much a promoter of Lagnitian science lengnitian philosophy.

[00:24:49]So this is the network that Electra Sophie put together and Bowling Bro comes into Paris 175.

[00:25:03]He's got gone into exile to save his neck. He's he's been charged with high treason and he's got to get out of England and he spends nine years in exile in France and he is in the middle of all of this. He's he's very close to the Duke of Borlon, the regent for the child king. He's participating in the salon of the Duchess of Maine. and we'll we'll go to the next slide.

[00:25:42]So, here we have the Duchess, the Delaware Duchess of Orland writing a letter to Sophie in 1706.

[00:25:55]She says, "My son," and we're talking about the current Duke of of Orland, the regent for the child king, Louis 15. She says, "My son has just come in. I immediately let him read Mr. Linets's paper on unity. He even understands it." Says it is easy to understand, which I do not think at all.

[00:26:18]My son says that he is entirely of Mr. Lightn's opinion and would have defended it against father Malibbranch. Now remember this name Malo branch because this is somebody that bowling broke is opposed to. We'll we'll we'll go into that and he's a key opponent in debates with linenets.

[00:26:41]So next slide.

[00:26:48]So this is this is another letter from the Doward Dowardger Duchess to Sophie.

[00:26:54]She says, "My son will himself answer Mr. Linets in writing in order to demonstrate that he understands him. My son and the learned people around him are in admiration at the quantity of Mr. Linets's writings and his great intellect to produce everything so nicely. We will see whether he will also be satisfied with my son's writing, which is about a page long. It's it's it's in the book. It's it's interesting.

[00:27:19]It's uh he's he has some questions for Linets, but basically like the other letter said, he's willing to put himself out there. He wants to take Linets's side against Father Mal Branch. So, next slide.

[00:27:40]Here's a live linet's letter to Sophie where he's talking about not the Duke of Orlan who who we've been following in the previous slides but he's talking about the Duchess of Maine who I just mentioned but also the Duke of Burgundy.

[00:28:00]The Duke of Burgundy is the grandson of Louis 14th. He's not called a prince because his father is still alive at this time. So his his the grandfather is the king. His father I don't know much about. And so he's the grandson of Louis 14th.

[00:28:23]And Linus is saying it's no small matter that even the Duke of Burgundy and also Madam the Duchess of Maine understand such deep subjects. One of the most important goods that distinguished p persons, you know, such as such as these can do can do for others is to spread the light in favoring researches of the marvels of God who shines in nature. And this is Libets's refrain that we can see the marvels of God through a study of nature and that what these aristocrats can do that's most important for for the betterment of the world is to spread this light on the researches of the marvels of God through the the work that's that's done in studies studies of nature, God's creation. So, next slide.

[00:29:27]This is the interior of the Duchess of Maine's uh home. It's called the Chateau Skull at the town of Skull. And here we have uh the scene where she's having lectures on Lagnitian philosophy. She's promoting demonstrations of scientific experiments and and the use of telescopes, the use of microscopes at the same time that she's having performances of Greek drama in translation in into French where she herself sometimes dressed up and was one of the characters in in the dramas. So this is where bowling broke is is is coming in during his exile. He's a participant here. This is likely where he met his French wife.

[00:30:24]He he was a widowerower. She she was a widow. They they had both been married before.

[00:30:31]Her name was the Maris Vallet. Maris Deallet.

[00:30:38]She's she's one of the aristocrats.

[00:30:41]Her husband was a cousin of the mistress of Louis 14th and the daughter of that of the first marriage of the husband of Dvallet was very close to the royal family And these aristocrats, they have multiple marriages. Well, people in in those in those times, they died early. And so the marquee duvallet had been married before he married the mar the mares bowling's wife at this time. and his stepdaughter was brought up by that mistress of King Louis 14th at Versailles and was educated by the same tutors, the same networks that educated the Duke of Maine, the illegitimate son of Louis 14 that married our current Duchess of Maine.

[00:32:05]which I don't know if that figure in in the painting is supposed to be her or not, but anyway, you can you can get some sense of of the grandeur and and and the spectacle that was going on with with her salons, which sometimes had hundreds of participants, people that would enter into high level discussions about Linetsian philosophy.

[00:32:31]So the next slide, Bully Broke is is in Paris for nine years in exile.

[00:32:41]He's able to uh dampen the attainer against somebody. It never really goes away. He's able to return to England to own property, but he's banned for life from being involved directly in politics, publicly in politics. All he's he's still very active behind the scenes, but that attainer is still on him. So, he comes back to England. He writes to Jonathan Swift in 1724. He says I am no longer the bubble you knew me. Very different person. He's been transformed by these liitsian networks. So the next slide for example in 1719 it while in exile bowling broke wrote to the K dunal he says I am using this opportunity to beg you to lend me the reply of Mr. Linets.

[00:33:42]This was on a calculus debate which I would not mind comparing with the letter of Mr. Newton which you kindly left in my hands. I will take care to return them in a few days. And I'm pretty sure that these documents the the the material written by linenets and Newton are the original documents because this K do was very close to somebody named Antonio Ki who handled those letters in London and got them to to the printer prepared them for the printer. And at the bottom of this letter you have Kanti's handwriting in it. He's writing in Italian. He's just repeating the the requests here and we assume supplied bowling broke with with this materials. Now I don't have anything following this up any direct comments from him on the calculus debate but you get a you get a sense of of how Boeing broke is coming into the this philos philosophical uh atmosphere in Paris and just jumping right in with both feet. So we have the next slide.

[00:35:02]This is the letter 1723 bowling broke to the abbey allerie and it's concerning the club by by 1723 the year before he goes back to England actually was 1722 bowling broke set up a new club in Paris called the club ultrasol it was on the model of the brothers club that he had set up in in London previous to his exile which we heard a lot about in the previous classes.

[00:35:34]And this but this club in Paris was more than the cultural, political, economic club that he had set up in in London because this club was including philosophical discussions. It it included leaders of the Paris Academy of Sciences that were very much live supporters.

[00:36:00]And so Bowling Brook is saying he's in London uh working out the details of his attainer so that he can he finally comes back to London to live in 1724. But at this point he's saying to Allerie he says please convey my very humble compliments to all our little academy club entras but if I could not count on seeing them again next month I should be inconsolable. They have confirmed my taste for philosophy. They have revived that love which I had for bell letters how grateful I am to them. So the next slide also uh during his exile bowling says to Madame Fariel who who ran another of these salons her salon was connected to the Duke of Orlion not the not the Duke of Maine as the other one we were talking about. So Bowling Brookke says to Fiel, he says, 'The situation with my affairs in England is very bad. But I would look on it all in despair if I had only Father Malibbranch's system as the foundation of my hopes. So we're going to talk more about this. Father Malibbranch who the Duke of Orleianne said he would take the side of Linets against Malibbranch and you have Bowling Brook talking about Malib Branch and later we will go into detail on the significance of who that guy was. Next slide.

[00:37:32]So this is Bolenberg writing to Jonathan Swift 1724. Bowling Brooks back in London, but Swift is in Dublin. Swift was was Irish. He he lived off and on in London, but at this point he he's back in Ireland. Bowling Brook says to him, "I must on this occasion set you right as to an opinion which I should be very sorry to have you entertain concerning me."

[00:37:59]The term espree for in English freethinker is according to my observation usually applied to them whom I look upon to be the pests of society.

[00:38:10]So these freethinkers are people who may not be complete atheists, but they're definitely deprecating the the church.

[00:38:21]And Bowling Broke is is making it clear to Swift where he comes down on the on these questions.

[00:38:31]So he's decrying the freethinkers who think that they should just be able to to discount the teachings of of the church and are questioning in particular well this is the question of of deism. You know, the founders of the of the United States of the American Revolution were accused of being deists who may have believed in God but not necessarily revelation and were a threat to Christianity. And Bowling Brook's making it clear he's not at all in that camp. But at the same time, he wants Swift to know that thinking persons of reason can look to study science and make the connection between theology and scientific inquiry and that in fact that kind of inquiry brings you closer to God, not away from God. And so I think you move too fast, Tony.

[00:39:42]Go back so I can read that last that last line. So Bowling Brook says such persons of reasons as as these I am sure you cannot even in your apostolic capacity.

[00:39:56]Swift was a dean of of the church there at Dublin.

[00:40:00]You cannot disapprove of these p this type of person or reason. Go ahead. For since the truth of the divine revelation of Christianity is as evident as matters of fact on the belief of which so much depends ought to be and agreeable to all our ideas of justice. These these type of persons of reason these must needs be Christians on the best foundation on that which St. Paul himself established.

[00:40:31]So there's no argument against Christian revelation any of this. It's it's quite the opposite that the study the devotion to scientific inquiry is actually Christian on the best foundation as St. Paul himself established is the way he puts it. So the next slide and bowling broke ends this letter to Swift saying I I make no doubt that you are by this time abundantly convinced of my orthodoxy and that you will name me no more in the same breath with Spinosa whose system of one infinite substance I despise and abore as I have a right to do because I am able to show why I despise and and abore it. So along with father Malibbranch Spinosa is a key opponent of linenets's philosophy and here we have bowling broke attacking Spinosa and this on the basis of this idea of one infinite substance and we're going to go into detail on what that that problem is that he sees with Spinosa. Let me just interject here that >> if you're watching this on YouTube, please press like and subscribe to increase our reach on YouTube. And if you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, free our free newsletter.

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[00:42:12]>> Right. So we can we can have the political clout to finish off people like Spinosa and Father Malib and their their followers today. Okay.

[00:42:22]So next slide.

[00:42:26]Here we have a painting of the Paris Academy of Sciences. the head of it, Christian Higgins, is the fellow who's bowing to King Louis I 14th and presenting his his group of scientists there. This this is actually be before Linets joined the academy uh in 1672. It was that Linets came in for four years at the academy. So, so it's just before Linets is there you have the uh Oh, I'm I'm sorry. I I'm I'm saying Christian H. Technically, Christian Hyens ran the academy, but this is the >> Colair. Yeah, it's John Bad Pit Coar who was the prime minister to Louis 14. He was also the economics minister. His brother was the foreign minister for Louis 14th. The the Colbear family was really running the government for him at this time. And after this co bear died 168 something I think then France really went to hell. But at this moment in history is really the the high point of the government there in in in France. So Colbear is is introducing the members of the academy to to the king part of Colbear's policy as his as part of his commitment to industrial development, technological and scientific progress. He established this academy and made sure that it was the opposite of what ended up happening with the British Royal Society, which was that it welcomed the highest ideas, the most advanced ideas that people like Linids and Christian Hygens coming in the the Dutchman Higgins coming in were were committed to next slide.

[00:44:52]Also at the academy 1672 when linenets joined was this fellow Denise Pampere.

[00:45:02]Deny Pampan is holding a diagram of his new invention, the pressure cooker, steam steam pressure cooker, which might seem like a small item, but Baban's idea from the beginning was to develop a steam engine. And within some years of this painting, he actually had a piston-driven steam engine that could power a small raft down a river. So Livveness comes in. He's working with Pampan on this on this project and is very concerned with the idea of power and force. This is this is what he he's meditating on was well next slide we'll tell you more from there.

[00:45:54]So Isaac Newton's idea of force is was expressed by the equation there the top equation force equals mass times velocity.

[00:46:06]Liness called this a harmless force.

[00:46:10]What linenets was interested in was what he called the explosive or violent force or v viva was the last and for the living force that means where the equation is force is equal to mass times velocity squared and they're working on not just steam power. Uh the first experiment that was done there at the academy on steam power was to take a cannonball that was cracked, fill it with water, fill in fill in the crack on the outside, heat it up until it exploded. So the these are the first experiments in in the steam engine.

[00:46:55]Another experiment that that was being carried out there along these lines of explosive or violent force was to take a an object and drop it from a height and measure the explosive impact from that which was m * v squared.

[00:47:20]So next slide.

[00:47:25]So coming out of these studies you have and this is actually after Linus is is dead but it it gives you some sense of where these experiments were were heading was we're looking at a a diagram from an exposition that was given to the British Royal Society in 1759 where John Smeen who's a fellow who's known as the father of civil engineering was giving a presentation that was addressed to the owners of mills that were using water wheels and Smeen was trying to show them that if they stuck with Newton's idea of force they were going to lose money big time but if they went with Livinets's idea of m * v squared then they would be making profit off of it. So here you have a diagram of a water wheel that is functioning as what's called an the undershot water wheel where you just stick the wheel into the current and the current drives the wheel around as you see there. So the next slide, this is called the overshot water wheel where you're bringing in water. You're channeling water or you're under a waterfall, whichever. And the water is hitting the wheel in a way where the paddles are carrying the weight of the water down as if you were dropping uh an object from a height and and getting that n* v squared impact that explosive impact. So you're you're setting up your water wheel on the basis of this lengnitian idea of these viva and the and the paddles on on the overshot waterhe are shaped like cups or buckets so that you're able to capture the full weight of the water. And so this this presentation is being made there in front of the Royal Society that's exploding Isaac Newton.

[00:49:45]and instead demonstrating that Linets was absolutely correct in his notion of force. So the next slide, this is this is just a a little example of the overshot water wheel where you don't even have to have it located near a waterfall or something. This is this is a wooden trough is coming off from the right to the left and the water is being dumped down into the buckets for the paddle buckets on the overshot wheel. So this this is just gives you a visual of m * v^ squ. So livveness is carrying this idea of what is the nature of force. He's he's saying that you look at a material body, you cannot see the v squ the velocity squared. You can't imagine it. It's it's it's undetectable.

[00:50:49]It's just sitting there before an object is is dropped from a height. It just looks like an ordinary uh object. It's it's there's no difference whether it's at the height or at the bottom in terms of the way it looks. But it has something inside of it that's a force that's a power that was that came into it from some kind of previous work that was done.

[00:51:14]So Linets is is asking so what about force and power in general in the universe? So he comes up with with this concept that it's not the matter itself that contains this force. He says matter he defines it as an extension in space which has shape, size and simple motion.

[00:51:39]You know if you if it's pushed it moves.

[00:51:42]It's always a conglomerate and it's infinitely divisible. All matter he says is infinitely divisible.

[00:51:53]But he says the location of the force of the power is something that's coexistent with matter. He calls it the governing substance which carries the power or capability of action in its interconnection with with matter or bodies. And this substance is always a unity. It's always a whole. It's not at all divisible.

[00:52:20]And he he uses the word substance during the early period. It's only when he gets up to about 1710, he starts exchanging the word substance which has connotations which are kind of like the opposite of this distinction he's making with with matter. And so he invents a word. He calls it the monad. He writes a treatis called the monadology in 1710.

[00:52:46]But we're going to stick with this idea of substance because we're working through Linets's ideas as he developed them through this period 1672 through76 at the Paris Academy.

[00:53:01]Okay, next slide.

[00:53:05]So not all governing substances are the same.

[00:53:09]Linets describes a nested hierarchy of governing substances and the word nested is is a more modern word well from the 1800s from Remon. Linets did not use the word nested but I think it's it's absolutely coherent with his philosophy.

[00:53:27]So we're we'll we'll use it here. It gives the right sense.

[00:53:32]So the hierarchy of substances are that at the top you have the absolutely singular substance of the creator which is a power or a capability of action with dominion over all of creation.

[00:53:50]Then light will tell you that the substance of a human being is an immortal soul which has a capability of action with dominion over all lower substances. And next slide, the substance of an animal. He also calls a soul, but he says it's only an indestructible soul, not immortal. He says the human soul being immortal preserves into eternity the individual personality, including its quality of goodness or lack thereof. the an and he says the animal soul has a power or capability of action over all lesser substances organic and inorganic.

[00:54:33]And he actually works this idea of the hierarchy of substances even lower so that organics the the substance of organic matter has a capability of power over inorganic matter. And even further down you have into the infinite divisibility of matter. You have a certain conglomerate of matter that has that extension, size and shape he was referring to that will have the substance of that conglomerated matter, physical matter, dead matter will have a capability of action over its individual parts into which it can be divided. So this hierarchy keeps going down. So the next slide.

[00:55:26]Now Lietnet says to Sophie in 1691 to understand this connection of substance with matter and matter being infinitely divisible.

[00:55:41]He says let's look at mathematics.

[00:55:43]He says to Sophie, this previous subject which he was talking about how substance is is a unity is a whole versus the infinitely divisible nature of of matter. He says this this subject is something which can be shown by mathematics which is supremely helpful for for familiarizing our mind with infinity and for raising it above mundane thoughts through clear and accurate knowledge. The problem is that a little attention is needed which is however well rewarded by the important considerations gained from it. So we're we're going to look quickly at at the mathematics here.

[00:56:25]Linus says mathematics is wellfounded fiction and it's whenever he's talking about infinity or the infant decimal calculus those notions are fictions as it relates to mathematics. When he's talking about the infinite divisibility of matter, he's talking about reality, not not fiction as we find in these concepts of infinite and infantessimal in what we're just manip manipulating with mathematical symbols. So the next slide.

[00:57:01]So just quickly we've got um one of the problems which the calculus could would be used to find a solution lenus infotimal calculus Newton's calculus has very limited applicability because he's in his calculus you have to have certain boundary conditions and it has limited applications but this gives you a sense of the kind of problem that can be solved. with lineness's infestimal calculus where you do you're looking at uh here the it says infinite sum of infinitely then rectangles or our integral or question of of the sum of that integrates these these rectangles that you're seeing here. So the first rectangle on the left is the largest one. You see the largest triangle above it and then the the rectangles are going smaller and smaller into infinity. And what you're actually calculating is not necessar well for the integral you are calculating the area but the inverse of the integral is the differential and you're looking at the rate of change from one rectangle to another. So the differential is going down to the to becoming instantaneous. The change becomes instantaneous by the time you get over there on the right to the letter B. So let's look at another example of this question of the infinite in mathematics.

[00:58:54]So Linet says that it's not true. He says it's very sloppy thinking to say that a line is composed of an infinite number of points. So he says if you take a line like there on the top and you choose a point and you take a magnifying glass, you're looking uh closer and closer into this point. You're not finding an infinite number of points on that line.

[00:59:23]And all you're finding is an endpoint that will be connected to another endpoint with a line in between somewhere in there. So you're looking at smaller and smaller line segments.

[00:59:33]You're not ever going to find a point in that line because a line comes into the mind as a whole as a unity and it is of a higher order. It's a higher class than mere points. So the next slide, it's the same with the relationship between a line and a curve.

[00:59:59]And so here you're seeing a pentagon shape inscribed inside a circle. And so next slide.

[01:00:09]So you might say, well, if we if we keep adding signs to the polygon that's inscribed inside the circle, that line is getting closer and closer to becoming a curve so that if you have an infinite number of sides on your polygon, aren't those sides going to just integrate into the curve? And of course lime is going to say no that the curve is a higher class than your line. The infinite here is never going to be able to define that that the way that the curve comes into the mind as a whole. So the multiples the into infinity is never going to be able to reach that higher order class no matter how many sides you have to that polygon. This this is called the problem of squaring a circle goes back to the ancient Greeks.

[01:01:09]So the next so here with with these examples in mathematics you have a nested hierarchy of classes sort of analogous to what we had with the nested hierarchy of substances.

[01:01:26]But the the infinite divisibility of matter is real. That's the real world where you find a concept of infinity that correlates with the physical universe as opposed to the examples of mathematical fictions. Linets keeps insisting on this that that you keep it all clearly distinct.

[01:01:55]So this hearkens back to Linets's idea of the coexistent extended bodies and their governing substances substances that he says was created that that interreationship between material bodies and their governing substances was established by God in a pre-established harmony.

[01:02:18]Okay. So we'll go to the next slide.

[01:02:23]I'm going back to Bowling Brook's letter to Jonathan Swift where he says, "I make no doubt, but you are by this time abundantly convinced of my orthodoxy and that you will name me no more in the same breath with Spinosa whose system of one infinite substance I despise and abore."

[01:02:44]And what he means well he's using the term substance which is the same with with the same intention that substance is is used by linenets and what he's deploring with spinosa is the idea that you have only one infinite substance you you in his system you don't have a differentiated system like liess has where you have the idea of force contained in substance as opposed to dead material elements. So the next slide.

[01:03:31]>> Next slide. Tony, >> this is it, right? Yeah. Oh.

[01:03:41]Uh, >> let me >> Oh, yeah. I pressed the wrong button.

[01:03:49]>> Um, >> no, the next the next slide should be lightnets on Spinosa.

[01:04:04]>> And that's that's the last.

[01:04:07]>> Yeah. Hold on a sec.

[01:04:08]>> Oh, okay. I I just give me a sec. Um uh >> well, no, we're still that that's the last slide, but what we're missing in between was >> Sorry about is is live notes. If if you don't think you have This this is this is this is it. Um well it's the >> it's the second part of the lime quote.

[01:04:47]So do you have one right before that?

[01:04:49]>> Yeah. Right.

[01:04:50]>> Oh okay. All right. So Bowling Bro is telling us that he abores spinosa's theory of one infinite substance. I don't have anything more from Bowling Broke on that question, but I would assume that his what he's talking about is coherent with what linet says here 1698 in the act eru dtorum. Lenus writes let us now consider a little more closely the view of those who deny true and proper activity to created things.

[01:05:26]Here he's talking about fa father malibbranch who had a theory of occasionalism which was the idea that there is only one substance. There's no hierarchy of substance substances.

[01:05:40]There's only one substance that's God.

[01:05:43]God is the is what's behind all force all action in the universe. And that anytime that you see some some kind of of action or or or force that is God finding an occasion to come in and act in the real world. So God is just diffused throughout everything in in the universe including human beings and all action comes through God directly not mediated through any kind of created being having its own capabilities. So lightn says let us now consider a little more closely the view of those who deny true and proper activity to created things as nowadays do some cartisians. Malibbranch said he was a follower of Decart. As nowadays do some cartisians who believe that it is not things which act but God who acts in them. Father Malibbranch in particular with his characteristic acumen presented it very persuasively.

[01:06:51]But nothing could be further from reason with this view. Next slide.

[01:06:56]If it were so, then no created substance, no soul would remain the same thing and nothing would be conserved by God. Everything would reduce to just transitory eancent modifications of fantasms so to speak of one permanent divine substance.

[01:07:15]There was a philosopher in the 1800s that said of this philosophy that it's it's like a a night where all cows are black.

[01:07:26]So Linets continues here. He says or what comes to the same thing? Nature itself would be God. a doctrine of very illreute which an irreligious author he's he's talking here about Spinosa who goes even further into this irreligious notion which an irreligious though admittedly clear author has recently introduced to the world which Spinoza had just introduced.

[01:07:54]So next slide.

[01:07:58]So just this is the last slide. So this is bowling broke His idea of the Spinosan theory which he's he abores is the idea of one infinite substance instead of what uh we assume in comparison would be Linus' hierarchy of substances. Bolenberg never speaks directly of liets's theory on that but you see you see the similarity here. So lidets writes of the spinosen theory of one permanent divine substance whereas bowling calls it one infinite substance they mean the same thing and the spinosen theory is in contrast to the lienitian theory of the pre-established harmony which god has imbued into the material material universe and its coexistent substance which has the governing power or capability of action to actually make things happen in the world, especially things that are important to the development of science and and technological innovation into human society. So what what we have here is this very deep connection between Bowlingbrook and Linets which Bowling Brook brings into the colonies. If you are an American, this is your story. This is your heritage. If you're not an American, but you've been following all of this, if if you have absorbed it, then you are an honorary American.

[01:09:51]So what what you have with with linenets going through this process at the Paris Academy, the co-mingling of all of these different areas of study that culminate in this idea of the pre-established harmony which is the foundation for Bowling Liness and Bowling Broke's assertion that God has created the best of all possible worlds.

[01:10:21]And that best of all possible worlds is the world that maximizes happiness and minimizes evil and suffering in the world. So this is this is where we get the Declaration of Independence asserting that God has ordained that government promote the happiness, the right to happiness, not the guarantee of happiness, the right to pursue happiness as part of its absolute foundation. So that's that's the Declaration of Independence. It's it's it's quite a quite a sweep here. So, I think that's that's it. We'll go to questions.

[01:11:06]>> Thanks so much, Judy. It was terrific.