From Parts to Wholes (1700-1799)

"Probability is a degree of certainty and it differs from certainty as a part from a whole." (Jacob Bernoulli, "Ars Conjectandi", 1713)

"Principles taken upon trust, consequences lamely deduced from them, want of coherence in the parts, and of evidence in the whole, these are every where to be met with in the systems of the most eminent philosophers, and seem to have drawn disgrace upon philosophy itself." (David Hume, "A Treatise of Human Nature", 1739-40)

"As the analysis of a substantial composite terminates only in a part which is not a whole, that is, in a simple part, so synthesis terminates only in a whole which is not a part, that is, the world." (Immanuel Kant, "Inaugural Dissertation", 1770)

"It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society." (Adam Smith, 1776)

"Is it reasonable to assume a purposiveness in all the parts of nature and to deny it to the whole?" —  Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View", 1784)

"Look round the world: contemplate the whole and every part of it: You will find it to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit of subdivisions, to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each other with an accuracy, which ravishes into admiration all men, who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembles exactly, though it much exceeds, the productions of human contrivance; of human design, thought, wisdom, and intelligence." (David Hume, "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion", 1779)