Nöel-Antoine Pluche

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Nöel-Antoine Pluche

French naturalist and philosopher who helped to popularize the philosophy of "natural theology," which became popular in France in the early and mid-eighteenth century. Following on the successes of Newtonian physics and other scientific advances of the Enlightenment, natural theology sought divinity in the laws and patterns of nature. Pluche's eight-volume work, Spectacle of Nature, was his most important work in this area.