
„But this opinion is but an hypothesis which he tried to adjust to the light of faith“
— Julien Offray de La Mettrie French physician and philosopher 1709 - 1751
Origine: The Natural History of the Soul (1745), Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter
Contesto: Descartes, a genius made to blaze new paths and to go astray in them, supposed with some other philosophers that God is the only efficient cause of motion, and that every instant He communicates motion to all bodies. But this opinion is but an hypothesis which he tried to adjust to the light of faith; and in so doing he was no longer attempting to speak as a philosopher or to philosophers. Above all he was not addressing those who can be convinced only by the force of evidence.<!--p.158