| clockwork universe | |
noun | |
| the view that the universe resembles a clock built by God and ticking along according to Newtonian mechanics |
An image of the universe as a clock wound up by God and ticking along with its gears governed by the laws of physics. This idea was very important in the Enlightenment, when scientists realized that Newton's laws of motion, including the law of universal gravitation, could explain the behavior of the solar system.