From efficient to final causes

the origin of the principle of least action

pp. 134-171

in: J. C. Boudri, What was mechanical about mechanics, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

Voltaire, the glorifier of reason and the world, must certainly have looked back on his time in Berlin with ambivalent feelings. After the death of his sweetheart the Marquise du Châtelet he spent some time at Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's country residence in Potsdam. He soon proved to be more imaginative and more entertaining than the then President of the Royal Academy, Maupertuis, so that they quickly became enemies.¹ The fact that Voltaire had been bypassed for the presidency six years earlier, in favor of Maupertuis, may also have played a role. Voltaire was bent on revenge, which can indeed be sweet.