Andrew Baxter (1686/1687–23 April 1750) was a Scottish metaphysician born in Aberdeen and educated at Kings College. He maintained himself by acting as tutor to noblemen's sons. From 1741 to 1747 he lived with Lord Blantyre and Mr Hay of Drummelzier at Utrecht, and made excursions in Flanders, France and Germany. Returning to Scotland, he lived at Whittingehame, near Edinburgh, until his death in 1750. At Spa he had met John Wilkes, then twenty years old, and formed a lasting friendship with him. His chief work, An Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul (editions 1733, 1737 and 1745; with appendix added in 1750 in answer to an attack in. Maclaurin's 'Account of Sir I. Newton's Philosophical Discoveries', and dedication. to John Wilkes), examines the properties of matter. It described the one essential property of matter as its inactivity, vis inertiae (accepted later by Monboddo). All movement in matter is, therefore, caused by some immaterial force, namely, God. But the movements of the body are not analogous to the movements of matter; they are caused by a special immaterial force, the soul. The soul, as being immaterial, is immortal, and its consciousness does not depend upon its connection with the body. He claimed the argument was supported by an analysis of the phenomena of dreams, which are ascribed to direct spiritual influences. Lastly Baxter attempted to prove that matter is finite. His work is an attack on Toland's 'Letters to Serena' (1704), which argued that motion is essential to matter, and on. Locke and Berkeley. His criticism of Berkeley (in the second volume) is, however, based on. the common misinterpretation of his theory. Sir Leslie Stephen described of him as a curious example of the effects of an exploded metaphysics on a feeble though ingenious intellect. 1686 (MDCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Events March 19 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. ... April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... Events March 2 - Small earthquake in London, England April 4 - Small earthquake in Warrington, England August 23 - Small earthquake in Spalding, England September 30 - Small earthquake in Northampton, England November 16 – Westminster Bridge officially opened Jonas Hanway is the first Englishman to use an umbrella James Gray reveals her sex... The Scottish people are a nation[6] and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. ... Aberdeen (Scottish Gaelic: ) is Scotlands third largest city (48th in Britain,[5] 313th in Europe[6]) with a population of 202,370. ... There are a number of institutions known as Kings College: Kings College, Cambridge, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge Kings College London, a college of the University of London Kings College School, a school originally founded to feed the London university college. ... Flanders (Dutch: ) has several main meanings: the social, cultural and linguistical, scientific and educational, economical and political community of the Flemings; generally called the Flemish community (others refer to this as the Flemish nation) which is, with over 6 million inhabitants, the majority of all Belgians; the constituent governing institution... Whittingehame is a small village in East Lothian, close to Haddington, East Linton and Traprain Law, and is an attractive corner of a very agreeable part of Scotland. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Scottish Gaelic: ) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Sir Leslie Stephen (November 28, 1832 – February 22, 1904) was an English author and critic, the father of two famous daughters, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. ...

Reference

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.