In 1644 he took up a position as Professor of Physics at the University of Leiden .[9] With Jacobus Triglandius and Jacobus Revius he attacked Cartesianism there.[10] In what is now known as the Leiden Crisis,[11][12] coming to a head in 1647, he opposed Adriaan Heereboord, over whom he had been brought in, and presided at a rowdy debate with the Leiden Cartesian Johannes de Raey. René Descartes himself commented on Steuart, in Notae in Programma Quoddam (1648), to which Steuart replied in Notae in notas nobilissimi cujusdam viri in ipsius theses de Deo (1648).[13] Steuart's party, the proponents of continuing to teach along the lines of Aristotelian philosophy, won a temporary victory.[14][15][16][17]
He was attacked by the theologian Samuel Maresius, during further controversy, as heterodox. He died in Leiden.[1]
Notes
^ abcAndrew Pyle (editor), Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers (2000), article Steuart, Adam, pp. 770-2.