Nineteenth century anticipations of modern theory of dynamical systems / Michael A.B. Deakin.
Abstract:
'The Laplace demon', an intelligence capable of knowing the position and the velocity of every particle in the universe and so, using the laws of classical physics, knowing all their future states, seemed in the last century to pose a contradiction between laws of physics and the freedom of the human will. In addressing this apparent paradox, Maxwell, Boussinesq, and Saint-Venant were led to consider aspects of the theory of systems of differential equations. These aspects ... have come to assume a central place in the modern theory of dynamical systems.' From the abstract
Archive for history of exact sciences Vol. 39 (1988), p. 183-194