Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Who was Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis?
French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, born in 1698 in Saint-Malo, France, became one of the most versatile scientific minds of the eighteenth century. He was educated in mathematics and natural philosophy and gained fame through his theoretical work and his readiness to conduct challenging empirical studies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1728, placing him among Europe's top scientists at a young age. His work took him to the academies of France, Prussia, and other places, showing the international scope of Enlightenment scholarship.
Before Fame
Maupertuis went to the Collège de la Marche in Paris and then studied further at the University of Basel. There, he learned about the mathematical and philosophical ideas spreading through Europe in the early 1700s. He joined the Académie des Sciences in Paris in 1723 and soon made a name for himself by supporting Newtonian mechanics when Cartesian physics was still popular in France. His early work in mathematics and his strong advocacy for Newton's ideas helped build his reputation as a bold and independent thinker ready to challenge established beliefs.
Key Achievements
- Led the 1736–1737 expedition to Lapland that confirmed the oblate shape of the Earth
- Formulated the principle of least action, a foundational concept in classical and modern theoretical physics
- Served as the first president of the reorganized Prussian Academy of Sciences under Frederick the Great
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1728
- Advanced early theories of heredity and biological variation that prefigured later developments in evolutionary biology
Did You Know?
- 01.Maupertuis was nicknamed 'the man who flattened the Earth' after his Lapland expedition confirmed that the planet is oblate spheroid rather than prolate.
- 02.Voltaire attacked him savagely in a satirical pamphlet titled Diatribe du docteur Akakia, published in 1752, which Frederick the Great initially tried to suppress before allowing it to circulate.
- 03.He conducted experiments on polydactyly in human families, using the inheritance of extra fingers and toes as early evidence that traits could be transmitted from both parents to offspring.
- 04.Frederick the Great personally invited Maupertuis to Berlin and placed him at the head of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, part of a broader effort to make Prussia a center of Enlightenment thought.
- 05.His principle of least action was at the center of one of the eighteenth century's most acrimonious priority disputes, involving accusations of plagiarism from the writings of Leibniz.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Fellow of the Royal Society | 1728 | — |