A Brief History of Time

by

Stephen Hawking

Marquis de Laplace Character Analysis

The French scientist argued that the entire universe could be determined by the laws of science. He thought that by knowing scientific laws thoroughly, and where every single particle was in one point in time, scientists would be able to predict everything, even human behavior. This was later undermined by the uncertainty principle, which asserts that one cannot know the position of particles precisely. At the turn of the 19th century Laplace suggested the existence of black holes, but later seemed to abandon the idea. Hawking does not mock Laplace’s desire to understand the world, though he does serve as an example of the dangers of misplaced enthusiasm or arrogance.

Marquis de Laplace Quotes in A Brief History of Time

The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Marquis de Laplace or refer to Marquis de Laplace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

The success of scientific theories […] led the French scientist the Marquis de Laplace […] to argue that the universe was completely deterministic. Laplace suggested that there should be a set of scientific laws that would allow us to predict everything that would happen in the universe.

Related Characters: Werner Heisenberg, Marquis de Laplace
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Brief History of Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Brief History of Time PDF

Marquis de Laplace Quotes in A Brief History of Time

The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Marquis de Laplace or refer to Marquis de Laplace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

The success of scientific theories […] led the French scientist the Marquis de Laplace […] to argue that the universe was completely deterministic. Laplace suggested that there should be a set of scientific laws that would allow us to predict everything that would happen in the universe.

Related Characters: Werner Heisenberg, Marquis de Laplace
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis: