"Maupertuis' attempt to introduce teleology into mechanics was met with sharp rebuffs from several scientists... Mixed into the debate were issues of priority, questions of natural philosophy and physics to do with measurement of motion, and fundamental questions concerning the ideological world view. At the center of the discussion was the question of conditionality or causality of the phenomena of the material world, or their teleological predestination through the creator's wisdom. Euler entered the debate in support of Maupertuis. For example, in his "Dissertation on the principle of least action" (1753) Euler criticized the attacks of S. König and certain other scientists... He also wrote that he himself "had conceived of this remarkable property... Only after a great many trials did I arrive at the formula that in motions of that type assumes its least value." …Writing about Maupertuis' principle... Euler emphasized that "all of dynamics and hydrodynamics can with astonishing ease be developed by the single method of maxima and minima." He concludes... "Nature in all her manifestations strives to make something smallest, and this smallest thing... is indisputably grasped by the concept of action.""