In 1796 Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes his Exposition du système du monde, presenting the nebular hypothesis of the solar system's formation from a rotating cloud of gas: cosmogony without a creator's hand. His reported answer to Napoleon, that he had no need of the hypothesis of God, becomes naturalism's most quoted sentence.
Tagged: Naturalism
The Event
- Date
- 1796 (exact)
- Era
- The Enlightenment System; Standard periodization of naturalist history
- Location
- Paris; today Paris, France
- Traditions
- Naturalism
- Streams
- Naturalism
- Key figures
- Pierre-Simon Laplace
- Key texts
- Exposition du système du monde
Primary Sources
- Laplace, Pierre-Simon. Exposition du système du monde. Paris, 1796.
Secondary Sources
- De Caro, Mario, and David Macarthur, eds. Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Gregory, Frederick. Scientific Materialism in Nineteenth Century Germany. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1977.
- Papineau, David. Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Provenance: HIST-1403; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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Büchner's Force and Matter
1855
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D'Holbach's System of Nature
1770
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Darwin's The Descent of Man
1871
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Huxley's Man's Place in Nature
1863
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La Mettrie's Man a Machine
1747
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Mill's A System of Logic
1843
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Newton's Principia Mathematica
1687
World View
Naturalism
Naturalism holds that nature is all there is: the universe of matter, energy, and natural law needs no god, soul, or purpose beyond itself.