Abstract: Frequently reissued, the Études de la Nature have influenced French literature and philosophy in ways that today go unrecognized. This vast system, based on a generalized finalism and the idea of a beneficent nature, invented the modern description of nature.
Keyword: Littérature française du xviiie siècle, histoire des sciences, système des marées, philosophie de la nature, finalisme, anthropocentrisme, providentialisme