Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle

Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle 11 February 16579 January 1757),Delorme, Suzanne (1970–80). "Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bouyer (or Bovier) De". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 5. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 57–63. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9 also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author. He was a member of three of the academies of the Institut de France. He was noted for ability to explain scientific topics during the Age of Enlightenment.

He is generally credited for being the first to use the Watchmaker Analogy, when he used it in his work Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, published in 1686. However, it was William Paley (1743 – 1805) who gave one of the best known explanations for this in his book Natural Theology, published in 1802.

 References 

Category:1657 births
Category:1757 deaths
Category:Writers from Rouen
Category:French poets
Category:French playwrights
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Members of the Académie française