Forces in the Body

In this chapter, I consider some responses to Newton’s theory of gravitation, with a particular focus on the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. If gravity permeates the universe, then what is its relationship to the human body? Mesmer’s thought is placed in context with that of a number of other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century thinkers, including Swedenborg, Kant and Schopenhauer, and also set alongside ideas from Nature Philosophy.