ABSTRACT
Teleological discourse changed dramatically with early modern physics. Early modern physics sought to account for nature merely in terms of the efficient causation of matter in motion as opposed to the final causation of intrinsic powers. As Galileo had established the heliocentric hypothesis with the planetary movements by analogical reasoning, so others sought to establish ‘the religious hypothesis’ by similar reasoning. Thus, Newtonians refurbished an ancient design argument by their modern methods and detailed experimental data to combat mechanism. Older English used ‘frame’ for any order or structure of parts into a whole, in the universe and especially in animate things. Jonathan Edwards writes accordingly about their occurrence in the second paragraph when ‘particles fall into a due situation for one particular regular frame’ and in the penultimate paragraph he uses ‘order’ synonymously with ‘frame’. Juxtaposed is ‘the improbability of such a frame coming by chance’, ‘particles wandering at random’, or ‘moving without rule or direction’.
