This dissertation examines Tory High-Church and Jacobite Episcopalian responses to Newton in early eighteenth century England and Scotland, providing a systematic analysis of the relationship between Newtonian natural philosophy, politics and religion from a Tory High-Church perspective. I argue that historical understanding of the linkages between political/ religious groups and Newtonian natural philosophy in the early eighteenth century can be improved by extending current historical debate beyond existing scholarship on the politics of Newtonianism - scholarship which has sought to establish a close relationship between Whigs, Latitudinarians and support for Newton. Instead of assuming a fixed association between political and religious groups and support for Newton, this thesis illustrates the multi-faceted nature of Newtonianism and the diverse political and religious uses to which Newtonian natural philosophy could be put. Tories and Jacobites frequently used Newton's science in political and religious debate to defend Tory High-Anglicanism and Scottish Episcopalianism, in spite of the numerous examples of Tory High-Church natural philosophers who saw Newton and his followers as exponents for radical Whiggery and heterodox thought, especially anti-Trinitarianism. This thesis seeks to understand how and why Tories and Jacobites had these various and often conflicting opinions of Newton. By doing so more complex and thorough knowledge of the support and opposition to Newton during this period can be gained, along with a better historical understanding of the triumph of Newtonian natural philosophy over rival philosophical systems.

Non-causal and causal explanation in science are unified under an extension of James Woodward's manipulationist account of causal explanation. Scientific explanation is about capturing and representing the modal structure of the world. Both causal and non-causal explanations often involve implicit and explicit modelling steps. Manipulationism can be extended to models; models have an endogenous set of rules that allow the specification of model analogues of manipulations and explanatory invariances. A pluralist view of explanation is defended. Models can explain despite, and sometimes because of, ineliminable fictions they contain. These fictions do not undermine an ontic account of explanation if the intuitions informing ontic sensibilities are suitably disaggregated. Ontic explanation is a two-levelled process. On the one hand, if we can connect variables with objective modal connections and those variables correspond to entities or properties of entities, or real structures in the world, then we have a correspondence explanation. If, on the other hand, we can still objectively produce modal connections but the ontology of the model is strictly false, then the variable terms do not correspond to real entities. It only appears as if they do, and we have a quasi-explanation. A quasiexplanation is only applicable in a certain empirical domains. This disaggregation has implications for realism. Often explanations will only license an attenuated realistic-or surrealistic- attitude to the ontology of models. This extension of manipulationism to models is far reaching, and as well as unifying many types of scientific explanation it also has applications in pure mathematics.

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L'objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre l'influence de la culture des physiciens sur leurs représentations mentales profondes du réel. Ces représentations, appelées themata, sont des options ou des présupposés philosophiques : déterminisme, réductionnisme, objectivité, etc. Sont-elles partagées par les scientifiques, au-delà de leurs spécificités culturelles géographiques, reflettant ainsi les valeurs partagées de la science ? Autrement dit, la science est-elle vraiment universelle ? Ou bien la culture locale des scientifiques exerce-t-elle une influence sur leurs représentations du réel dans le cadre de leur travail scientifique ? Nous avons comparé plus de soixante-dix physiciens indiens et français, au sujet de leur représentation du réel, en particulier au sujet de la physique quantique.Les résultats de notre recherche montrent qu'il existe des différences entre certains themata des physiciens indiens et français. Nous avons en particulier observé que les physiciens indiens apparaissent plus déterministes que les physiciens français ; ils sont plus attachés à l'appréhension discrète et non continue de la matière ; ils accordent un rôle plus important au caractère subjectif de la connaissance c'est à dire à l'observateur, ils ont une approche plus systémique des objets et phénomènes physiques et ils conçoivent un ordre sous-jacent aux phénomènes, ce qui est beaucoup moins le cas pour les physiciens français. A l'issue de notre recherche, nous estimons que les physiciens indiens et français adhèrent à des themata différents. Nous pouvons donc parler de spécificités locales (ou nationales) pour les themata, c'est-à-dire de « styles thématiques locaux » (STL), un concept que nous développons spécifiquement pour cette recherche. Nous observons par ailleurs, que dans le cas de la physique quantique, ces « styles thématiques locaux » semblent influencer les choix de représentation et d'interprétation de la théorie quantique / This thesis examines the influence of the cultural background of physicists on their deep mental representations of reality. These representations, called themata, are philosophical presuppositions: determinism, reductionism, objectivity, etc. Are scientist' themata independent of their cultural backgrounds, reflecting instead the shared values of science? Is science universal? Does the scientific culture influences their representations of reality in the context of their scientific work? We compare the themata of seventy Indian and French physicists, with a focus on their interpretation of quantum physics.The results of our research suggest that there are differences between Indian and French physicists with respect to certain themata. In particular, we observe that Indian physicists appear more deterministic than their French counterparts and they are more attached to a discrete rather thana continuous conception of matter. Indian physicists give a greater role to the subjective nature of knowledge (the observer), they have a more systemic approach to physical objects and phenomena, and they have a preference for an order underlying the phenomena. If Indian and French physicists adhere to different themata this justifies talking about specific local (or national) styles for themata, that is to say, "local thematic styles" (STL), a concept that we have developed specifically for this research. We also note that in the case of quantum physics these "local thematic styles" seem to influence scientists' choice of representation and interpretation of quantum theory

Ce travail présente une étude théorique des spectres RMN de molécules biologiques. Dans la première partie, les calculs DFT des paramètres RMN (déplacements chimiques et constantes de couplage spin-spin) pour les protons liés à des atomes de carbone ont été réalisés pour quatre métabolites de la prostate: la putrescine, la spermidine, la spermine, et la sarcosine, et trois métabolites du cerveau: l'acétate, l'alanine et la sérine. Une étude théorique systématique, dans l'approche DFT, des paramètres de RMN des métabolites a montré que la méthode B3LYP/6-311++G** est un bon compromis entre la précision et les coûts. Les contributions du solvant ont été évaluées en utilisant le modèle PCM, les effets des isomères, pondérés dans l’approximation de Boltzmann, ont été pris en compte, et les corrections de vibration de point zéro ont été estimées en utilisant une approche perturbative au second ordre. La comparaison avec l'expérience a démontré que tous ces effets sont nécessaires pour améliorer l'accord entre les données calculées et expérimentales, aboutissant à des résultats de grande précision. Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons développé un nouveau modèle, BioShift, qui permet la prédiction des déplacements chimiques des différents noyaux (H, N, C ...) pour des molécules biologiques (protéines, ADN, ARN, polyamine ...). Il est simple, rapide, et comporte un nombre limité de paramètres. La comparaison avec des modèles sophistiqués conçus spécialement pour la prédiction des déplacements chimiques des protéines a montré que Bioshift est concurrentiel avec de tels modèles. / The present work presents a theoretical study of the NMR spectra of biological molecules. In the first part, DFT calculations of the spin-Hamiltonian NMR parameters (chemical shifts and spin-spin coupling constants) for protons attached to carbon atoms have been performed for four prostate metabolites: putrescine, spermidine, spermine, and sarcosine, and three brain metabolites: acetate, alanine, and serine. A theoretical investigation, within the DFT approach, of the NMR parameters of metabolites has shown that the B3LYP/6-311++G** level of calculation is a good compromise between accuracy and costs. Contributions from solvent were evaluated using the PCM model, Boltzmann weighted isomer effects were calculated, and zero-point vibrational corrections were estimated using a second order perturbation approach. Comparison with experiment has demonstrated that all these effects are necessary to improve the agreement between calculated and experimental data. In the second part, we have presented a new model, BioShift, that allows the prediction of chemical shifts of different nuclei (H, N, C…) for biological molecules (proteins, DNA, RNA, polyamine …). It is simple, fast, and involves a limited number of parameters. Comparison with well-known sophisticated models designed especially for the prediction of chemical shifts of proteins showed that Bioshift is competitive with such models.