The notion of the clockwork universe is not of medieval origin; it actually goes back to antiquity. Its most famous exponent in ancient times was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), who carefully developed the analogy in Book II of his work, The Nature of the Gods:
How is it consistent with common-sense that when you view an image or a picture, you imagine it is wrought by art; when you behold afar off a ship under sail, you judge it is steered by reason and art; when you see a dial or water-clock, you believe the hours are shown by art, and not by chance; and yet that you should imagine that the universe, which contains all arts and the artificers, can be void of reason and understanding? (Book II, Section XXXIV)
Is he worthy to be called a man who attributes to chance,
not to an intelligent cause, the constant motion of the heavens, the regular
courses of the stars, the agreeable proportion and connection of all things,
conducted with so much reason that our intellect itself is unable to estimate
it rightly? When we see machines move artificially, as a sphere, a clock, or
the like, do we doubt whether they are the productions of reason? And when we
behold the heavens moving with a prodigious celerity, and causing an annual
succession of the different seasons of the year, which vivify and preserve all things,
can we doubt that this world is directed, I will not say only by reason, but by
reason most excellent and divine? (Book II, Section XXXVIII)
Here, Cicero used the clock analogy, not in order to argue that the universe is a giant clock, but rather to argue that if we can be sure that a clock can only be produced by some intelligent being, then we can be even more certain that the universe, whose movements are much more precise and intricate than any clock's, is directed by a Higher Intelligence.
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