Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
The West's sense of itself, its relation to its past, and its sense of its future have been profoundly altered since the 17th century as cognitive values generally have gradually come to be shaped ...
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The West's sense of itself, its relation to its past, and its sense of its future have been profoundly altered since the 17th century as cognitive values generally have gradually come to be shaped around scientific ones. The issue is not just that science brought a new set of such values to the task of understanding the world and our place in it, but rather that it completely transformed the task, redefining the goals of enquiry. This is a distinctive feature of the development of a scientific culture in the West and it marks it out from other scientifically productive cultures. This book examines the first stage of this development, from the 13th-century introduction of Aristotelianism and its establishment of natural philosophy as the point of entry into systematic understanding of the world and our place in it, to the attempts to establish natural philosophy as a world-view in the wake of the Scientific Revolution. It offers a conceptual and cultural history of the emergence of a scientific culture in the West from the early-modern era to the present. Science in the modern period is treated as a particular kind of cognitive practice and as a particular kind of cultural product, with aim to show that if we explore the connections between these two, we can learn something about the concerns and values of modern thought that we could not learn from either of them taken separately.Less
The West's sense of itself, its relation to its past, and its sense of its future have been profoundly altered since the 17th century as cognitive values generally have gradually come to be shaped around scientific ones. The issue is not just that science brought a new set of such values to the task of understanding the world and our place in it, but rather that it completely transformed the task, redefining the goals of enquiry. This is a distinctive feature of the development of a scientific culture in the West and it marks it out from other scientifically productive cultures. This book examines the first stage of this development, from the 13th-century introduction of Aristotelianism and its establishment of natural philosophy as the point of entry into systematic understanding of the world and our place in it, to the attempts to establish natural philosophy as a world-view in the wake of the Scientific Revolution. It offers a conceptual and cultural history of the emergence of a scientific culture in the West from the early-modern era to the present. Science in the modern period is treated as a particular kind of cognitive practice and as a particular kind of cultural product, with aim to show that if we explore the connections between these two, we can learn something about the concerns and values of modern thought that we could not learn from either of them taken separately.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
One of the driving ideas behind many of the various movements in 17th-century natural philosophy was that of the unity of knowledge. There were two principal ways of establishing this in its most ...
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One of the driving ideas behind many of the various movements in 17th-century natural philosophy was that of the unity of knowledge. There were two principal ways of establishing this in its most general form. The first was politico-theology: Spinoza undermined the claims of Christianity to supply satisfactory notions of wisdom and happiness, and to set out to develop a novel account of how a mechanised natural philosophy can lead to wisdom and happiness. The general unqualified rejection of the Spinozean model does not mean that in a struggle between legitimacy, which the Spinozean conception effectively abandoned, and autonomy, which it established beyond doubt, natural philosophers favoured legitimacy over autonomy. They wanted both, and the answer was deemed to lie in physico-theology: revelation and natural philosophy were treated as being mutually reinforcing, there being a process of triangulation towards the shared truth of revelation and natural philosophy.Less
One of the driving ideas behind many of the various movements in 17th-century natural philosophy was that of the unity of knowledge. There were two principal ways of establishing this in its most general form. The first was politico-theology: Spinoza undermined the claims of Christianity to supply satisfactory notions of wisdom and happiness, and to set out to develop a novel account of how a mechanised natural philosophy can lead to wisdom and happiness. The general unqualified rejection of the Spinozean model does not mean that in a struggle between legitimacy, which the Spinozean conception effectively abandoned, and autonomy, which it established beyond doubt, natural philosophers favoured legitimacy over autonomy. They wanted both, and the answer was deemed to lie in physico-theology: revelation and natural philosophy were treated as being mutually reinforcing, there being a process of triangulation towards the shared truth of revelation and natural philosophy.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something ...
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There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something created. The natural history tradition was marginalized with the introduction of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, but it continued to play a role in conceiving of nature as a text to be read in a similar way to that in which revelation was read. Developments in biblical and legal philology in the 16th century transformed the model on which natural history was based, and as a result, it ceased to be allegorical and became literal. By the 17th century, it had begun to provide a new kind of religious reading of nature.Less
There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something created. The natural history tradition was marginalized with the introduction of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, but it continued to play a role in conceiving of nature as a text to be read in a similar way to that in which revelation was read. Developments in biblical and legal philology in the 16th century transformed the model on which natural history was based, and as a result, it ceased to be allegorical and became literal. By the 17th century, it had begun to provide a new kind of religious reading of nature.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in ...
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In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in which the reconciliation between religion and natural philosophy was attempted: metaphysics and physico‐theology. The Leibniz/Clarke correspondence encapsulates many of the questions at issue.Less
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in which the reconciliation between religion and natural philosophy was attempted: metaphysics and physico‐theology. The Leibniz/Clarke correspondence encapsulates many of the questions at issue.
Raymond Flood
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231256
- eISBN:
- 9780191710803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231256.003.0011
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter focuses on Lord Kelvin's collaboration with Peter Guthrie Tait. Probably the most influential legacy of their collaboration on ‘heavy mathematical work’ was the production in 1867 of The ...
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This chapter focuses on Lord Kelvin's collaboration with Peter Guthrie Tait. Probably the most influential legacy of their collaboration on ‘heavy mathematical work’ was the production in 1867 of The Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which became universally known as ‘T&T’. It was Tait's concern to have adequate textbooks for his students to support his lectures that led to the project that resulted in ‘T&T’.Less
This chapter focuses on Lord Kelvin's collaboration with Peter Guthrie Tait. Probably the most influential legacy of their collaboration on ‘heavy mathematical work’ was the production in 1867 of The Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which became universally known as ‘T&T’. It was Tait's concern to have adequate textbooks for his students to support his lectures that led to the project that resulted in ‘T&T’.
Ben Brice
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199290253
- eISBN:
- 9780191710483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290253.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
David Hume was brought up as a Calvinist, and studied Newtonian physics and methodology at Edinburgh University and beyond. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and his posthumously ...
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David Hume was brought up as a Calvinist, and studied Newtonian physics and methodology at Edinburgh University and beyond. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and his posthumously published Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779), Hume attacked the foundations of post-Newtonian natural theology by exploiting both Newton's rules for reasoning in natural philosophy (Regulae Philosophandi) and Protestant critiques of natural reason, in order to attack the metaphysical and theological foundations of 18th-century natural religion. It is argued that while Coleridge never ceased to attack the ‘infidelity’ and corruption of the atheist Hume, he could not easily dismiss Hume's arguments against natural religion, since they were often couched in the language of ‘epistemological piety’ as practiced by Christian philosophers like Boyle, Locke, and Newton. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's acknowledged intellectual debts to Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790).Less
David Hume was brought up as a Calvinist, and studied Newtonian physics and methodology at Edinburgh University and beyond. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and his posthumously published Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779), Hume attacked the foundations of post-Newtonian natural theology by exploiting both Newton's rules for reasoning in natural philosophy (Regulae Philosophandi) and Protestant critiques of natural reason, in order to attack the metaphysical and theological foundations of 18th-century natural religion. It is argued that while Coleridge never ceased to attack the ‘infidelity’ and corruption of the atheist Hume, he could not easily dismiss Hume's arguments against natural religion, since they were often couched in the language of ‘epistemological piety’ as practiced by Christian philosophers like Boyle, Locke, and Newton. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's acknowledged intellectual debts to Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790).
Ted McCormick
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199547890
- eISBN:
- 9780191720529
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547890.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Economic History
The conclusion draws together several of the main themes of the book, arguing that political arithmetic can only be understood properly from the manuscripts he circulated in his lifetime, and in the ...
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The conclusion draws together several of the main themes of the book, arguing that political arithmetic can only be understood properly from the manuscripts he circulated in his lifetime, and in the context of his lifelong engagement with natural philosophy and his Baconian interpretation of the methods and purposes of science. Petty's project to transform government through the systematic manipulation of populations in the interests of the state undermines any retrospective distinction between his contribution to social science and his interest in social engineering; the concept of ‘biopolitics', though equally anachronistic, is more appropriate. By the same token, however, the massive expansion (in real terms) of demographic manipulation after Petty's death suggests that political arithmetic's ambitions were not abandoned but merely concealed.Less
The conclusion draws together several of the main themes of the book, arguing that political arithmetic can only be understood properly from the manuscripts he circulated in his lifetime, and in the context of his lifelong engagement with natural philosophy and his Baconian interpretation of the methods and purposes of science. Petty's project to transform government through the systematic manipulation of populations in the interests of the state undermines any retrospective distinction between his contribution to social science and his interest in social engineering; the concept of ‘biopolitics', though equally anachronistic, is more appropriate. By the same token, however, the massive expansion (in real terms) of demographic manipulation after Petty's death suggests that political arithmetic's ambitions were not abandoned but merely concealed.
Richard Scholar
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199274406
- eISBN:
- 9780191706448
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274406.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
It is commonly said in the early modern period that elusive qualities draw natural bodies together. This chapter offers a critical history of attempts to explain such preternatural forces in natural ...
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It is commonly said in the early modern period that elusive qualities draw natural bodies together. This chapter offers a critical history of attempts to explain such preternatural forces in natural philosophy. It argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi appears as a key term in the vernacular debate about occult qualities and other secrets of nature, and that it becomes a site of lexical conflict between traditionalists (especially Jesuit natural philosophers) and so-called ‘new’ philosophers (Bacon, Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton). Its appearance in this context is best understood as a symptom of the crisis that besets scholastic natural philosophy in the 17th century. The je-ne-sais-quoi offers in this way a point of entry into central debates of the period known as the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Not only does the word help articulate philosophical discussions about preternatural phenomena, but those discussions also offer access to the nature of the je-ne-sais-quoi itself.Less
It is commonly said in the early modern period that elusive qualities draw natural bodies together. This chapter offers a critical history of attempts to explain such preternatural forces in natural philosophy. It argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi appears as a key term in the vernacular debate about occult qualities and other secrets of nature, and that it becomes a site of lexical conflict between traditionalists (especially Jesuit natural philosophers) and so-called ‘new’ philosophers (Bacon, Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton). Its appearance in this context is best understood as a symptom of the crisis that besets scholastic natural philosophy in the 17th century. The je-ne-sais-quoi offers in this way a point of entry into central debates of the period known as the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Not only does the word help articulate philosophical discussions about preternatural phenomena, but those discussions also offer access to the nature of the je-ne-sais-quoi itself.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
The chapter explores the development of the thought of John Locke. It begins with his early medical concerns, showing how these became connected with the issue of the standing of ‘experimental ...
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The chapter explores the development of the thought of John Locke. It begins with his early medical concerns, showing how these became connected with the issue of the standing of ‘experimental natural philosophy’. The most comprehensive statement of the philosophy to which Locke was opposed was that of Nicolas Malebranche, and Locke's mature views can be seen as a response to Malebranche. The reading offered brings to light an understanding of empiricism as a successor to, and philosophical refinement of, seventeenth‐century ‘experimental’ natural philosophy, something which is intimately tied up with natural‐philosophical practice, and is quite distinct from the speculative epistemology to which it is reduced in the ‘rationalism/empiricism’ debates.Less
The chapter explores the development of the thought of John Locke. It begins with his early medical concerns, showing how these became connected with the issue of the standing of ‘experimental natural philosophy’. The most comprehensive statement of the philosophy to which Locke was opposed was that of Nicolas Malebranche, and Locke's mature views can be seen as a response to Malebranche. The reading offered brings to light an understanding of empiricism as a successor to, and philosophical refinement of, seventeenth‐century ‘experimental’ natural philosophy, something which is intimately tied up with natural‐philosophical practice, and is quite distinct from the speculative epistemology to which it is reduced in the ‘rationalism/empiricism’ debates.
Edward Grant
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195172256
- eISBN:
- 9780199835546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195172256.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Scientific values embodied in Aristotle’s natural philosophy and the civic virtues embedded in his practical sciences (ethics and politics), were used to improve the quality of government in the 14th ...
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Scientific values embodied in Aristotle’s natural philosophy and the civic virtues embedded in his practical sciences (ethics and politics), were used to improve the quality of government in the 14th century by King Charles V of France. This was readily feasible because of the separation of church and state, the favorable attitude toward natural philosophy by medieval theologians, and the institutionalization of the study of Aristotle’s theoretical and practical sciences in the medieval universities, which relied heavily on reasoned argumentation and a rejection of arguments from authority, as exemplified by Nicole Oresme. The intellectual habits developed in this process shaped a “scientific temperament” that ushered in early modern science. In stark contrast, Islam was a theocracy with no separation of church and state. Natural philosophy was viewed as a potential threat to religious faith and was marginalized, leading eventually to a gradual deterioration in the study of the exact sciences, which had previously attained the highest level in the civilized world.Less
Scientific values embodied in Aristotle’s natural philosophy and the civic virtues embedded in his practical sciences (ethics and politics), were used to improve the quality of government in the 14th century by King Charles V of France. This was readily feasible because of the separation of church and state, the favorable attitude toward natural philosophy by medieval theologians, and the institutionalization of the study of Aristotle’s theoretical and practical sciences in the medieval universities, which relied heavily on reasoned argumentation and a rejection of arguments from authority, as exemplified by Nicole Oresme. The intellectual habits developed in this process shaped a “scientific temperament” that ushered in early modern science. In stark contrast, Islam was a theocracy with no separation of church and state. Natural philosophy was viewed as a potential threat to religious faith and was marginalized, leading eventually to a gradual deterioration in the study of the exact sciences, which had previously attained the highest level in the civilized world.
David N. Livingstone
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter presents an impressionistic, and thus imprecise, sketch of the history of British geography from 1500 to 1900. Over these 400 years, British geography has assumed many different forms in ...
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This chapter presents an impressionistic, and thus imprecise, sketch of the history of British geography from 1500 to 1900. Over these 400 years, British geography has assumed many different forms in many different arenas. Whether as a species of natural philosophy and mathematics, as a form of regional portraiture, as overseas lore, or expeditionary travel; whether in universities curricula or at royal courts, in school texts or learned societies; whether as a vehicle of national and local identity or as a channel of imperial desire: geography has been inextricably intertwined with the social, intellectual, political and religious history of the British Isles.Less
This chapter presents an impressionistic, and thus imprecise, sketch of the history of British geography from 1500 to 1900. Over these 400 years, British geography has assumed many different forms in many different arenas. Whether as a species of natural philosophy and mathematics, as a form of regional portraiture, as overseas lore, or expeditionary travel; whether in universities curricula or at royal courts, in school texts or learned societies; whether as a vehicle of national and local identity or as a channel of imperial desire: geography has been inextricably intertwined with the social, intellectual, political and religious history of the British Isles.
R. W. Serjeantson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199256525
- eISBN:
- 9780191719707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256525.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter concerns Hume's account in Book I of the Treatise of Human Nature (1739) of the operation of ‘general rules’. It considers their relation to conceptions of regularity, probability, ...
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This chapter concerns Hume's account in Book I of the Treatise of Human Nature (1739) of the operation of ‘general rules’. It considers their relation to conceptions of regularity, probability, circumstance, and experience that obtained in early modern logic and natural philosophy, taking occasion to reflect upon the significance of Hume's claim, in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, that natural philosophy and moral philosophy are ‘derived from the same principles’. It concludes by suggesting that a number of Hume's essays are structured as reflections and refinements upon commonly-held general rules.Less
This chapter concerns Hume's account in Book I of the Treatise of Human Nature (1739) of the operation of ‘general rules’. It considers their relation to conceptions of regularity, probability, circumstance, and experience that obtained in early modern logic and natural philosophy, taking occasion to reflect upon the significance of Hume's claim, in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, that natural philosophy and moral philosophy are ‘derived from the same principles’. It concludes by suggesting that a number of Hume's essays are structured as reflections and refinements upon commonly-held general rules.
Peter R. Anstey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589777
- eISBN:
- 9780191725487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589777.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter provides an introductory discussion of the nature and scope of early modern natural philosophy, including the distinction between Experimental and Speculative natural philosophy and the ...
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This chapter provides an introductory discussion of the nature and scope of early modern natural philosophy, including the distinction between Experimental and Speculative natural philosophy and the relation between natural philosophy and medicine. States the main theses of the book and provides an overview of the contents of each chapter.Less
This chapter provides an introductory discussion of the nature and scope of early modern natural philosophy, including the distinction between Experimental and Speculative natural philosophy and the relation between natural philosophy and medicine. States the main theses of the book and provides an overview of the contents of each chapter.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198237242
- eISBN:
- 9780191597480
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198237243.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Stephen Gaukroger traces the development of Descartes's thought in the social, religious, and intellectual context of seventeenth‐century Europe. Gaukroger describes Descartes's upbringing and his ...
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Stephen Gaukroger traces the development of Descartes's thought in the social, religious, and intellectual context of seventeenth‐century Europe. Gaukroger describes Descartes's upbringing and his education at the Jesuit La Flèche collège, and shows the role these played in the development of his ground‐breaking work in philosophy and science. The book details the effects of his relationships with others on his work, both through collaboration and through conflict. It discusses the history of the composition of his major works and details their structure and content. It documents the correspondence, which played a major part in the development of his thinking, both before and after publication. The book concludes, as it begins, with his correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia on the subject of the passions.Less
Stephen Gaukroger traces the development of Descartes's thought in the social, religious, and intellectual context of seventeenth‐century Europe. Gaukroger describes Descartes's upbringing and his education at the Jesuit La Flèche collège, and shows the role these played in the development of his ground‐breaking work in philosophy and science. The book details the effects of his relationships with others on his work, both through collaboration and through conflict. It discusses the history of the composition of his major works and details their structure and content. It documents the correspondence, which played a major part in the development of his thinking, both before and after publication. The book concludes, as it begins, with his correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia on the subject of the passions.
Raymond Joad
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199560509
- eISBN:
- 9780191701801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560509.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter discusses the impact of natural philosophy on views of angels, and the ways in which angels constituted thought experiments in natural philosophy. Milton's angels are objects of ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of natural philosophy on views of angels, and the ways in which angels constituted thought experiments in natural philosophy. Milton's angels are objects of natural-philosophical knowledge. There was no divorce between mechanical and occult or spiritual philosophy; rather, it was the opponents of the Society, such as Hobbes, who doubted that spiritual beings were reliable evidence. Increasingly the ‘proof’ of the spirit world lay in descriptions and explanations of apparitions, such as those compiled by Robert Boyle, Glanvill, and More. The spirits concerned were predominantly demons because the age of miracles and angels was over. Still, there is no real division between the philosopher, theologian, and poet, because the story is ‘a complex narrative organism’ and the part and whole must be understood together.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of natural philosophy on views of angels, and the ways in which angels constituted thought experiments in natural philosophy. Milton's angels are objects of natural-philosophical knowledge. There was no divorce between mechanical and occult or spiritual philosophy; rather, it was the opponents of the Society, such as Hobbes, who doubted that spiritual beings were reliable evidence. Increasingly the ‘proof’ of the spirit world lay in descriptions and explanations of apparitions, such as those compiled by Robert Boyle, Glanvill, and More. The spirits concerned were predominantly demons because the age of miracles and angels was over. Still, there is no real division between the philosopher, theologian, and poet, because the story is ‘a complex narrative organism’ and the part and whole must be understood together.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206088
- eISBN:
- 9780191676970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206088.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. ...
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The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. This implied a stark contrast between Spinoza's scientific rationality and that of every other leading philosopher and scientist of the age, not least Descartes. Various contemporaries attested to Spinoza's skill in preparing lenses and building microscopes and telescopes. Among those most aware of Spinoza's work with microscopes was the preeminent scientist of the Dutch Golden Age, Christian Huygens. Below the surface, the barely suppressed rivalry between Huygens and Spinoza extended far beyond lenses and microscopes. For both men, the central issue in science at the time was to revise and refine Descartes' laws of motion and mechanics. Another central strand of Spinoza's scientific thought is his critique of Boyle. Spinoza relegated observation and experiment to the secondary role of confirming or contradicting hypotheses, and it was on this ground that he was drawn into criticizing Boyle and the empiricism of the Royal Society.Less
The most important and exceptional element in Spinoza's scientific thought is simply that natural philosophy, or science, is of universal applicability and that there is no reserved area beyond it. This implied a stark contrast between Spinoza's scientific rationality and that of every other leading philosopher and scientist of the age, not least Descartes. Various contemporaries attested to Spinoza's skill in preparing lenses and building microscopes and telescopes. Among those most aware of Spinoza's work with microscopes was the preeminent scientist of the Dutch Golden Age, Christian Huygens. Below the surface, the barely suppressed rivalry between Huygens and Spinoza extended far beyond lenses and microscopes. For both men, the central issue in science at the time was to revise and refine Descartes' laws of motion and mechanics. Another central strand of Spinoza's scientific thought is his critique of Boyle. Spinoza relegated observation and experiment to the secondary role of confirming or contradicting hypotheses, and it was on this ground that he was drawn into criticizing Boyle and the empiricism of the Royal Society.
Christia Mercer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693719
- eISBN:
- 9780191739019
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693719.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Platonism played a much more significant part in the development of the new natural philosophy in the seventeenth century than has generally been understood. This paper displays the crucial role that ...
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Platonism played a much more significant part in the development of the new natural philosophy in the seventeenth century than has generally been understood. This paper displays the crucial role that Platonist doctrines about mind, soul, God, and emanative causation played in the natural philosophy of two seventeenth-century philosophers: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) and Anne Finch Conway (1631–1679). The paper explores the failure of the metaphysical underpinnings of the mechanical philosophy, and displays the importance of early modern Platonism to right those metaphysical wrongs. The Platonism of Leibniz and Conway reveals a good deal both about the specific use of Platonist doctrines in grounding the new seventeenth-century natural philosophy and the precise motivations behind doing so.Less
Platonism played a much more significant part in the development of the new natural philosophy in the seventeenth century than has generally been understood. This paper displays the crucial role that Platonist doctrines about mind, soul, God, and emanative causation played in the natural philosophy of two seventeenth-century philosophers: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) and Anne Finch Conway (1631–1679). The paper explores the failure of the metaphysical underpinnings of the mechanical philosophy, and displays the importance of early modern Platonism to right those metaphysical wrongs. The Platonism of Leibniz and Conway reveals a good deal both about the specific use of Platonist doctrines in grounding the new seventeenth-century natural philosophy and the precise motivations behind doing so.
Richard Cross
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269748
- eISBN:
- 9780191683787
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269748.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Theology
Duns Scotus, along with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, was one of the three most talented and influential of the medieval schoolmen, and a highly original and ...
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Duns Scotus, along with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, was one of the three most talented and influential of the medieval schoolmen, and a highly original and creative thinker. Natural philosophy, or physics, is one of the areas of his system which has not received detailed attention in modern literature. But it is important, both for understanding Scotus's contributions in theology, and in tracing some important developments in the basically Aristotelian world-view which Scotus and his contemporaries espoused. This book contains discussion and analysis of Scotus's accounts of the nature of matter; the structure of material substance; mass; the nature of space, time, and motion; quantitative and qualitative change; and the various sorts of unity which can be exhibited by different kinds of whole. It also includes discussion of Scotus's accounts of chemical composition, organic unity, and nutrition. Scotus's views on these matters are philosophically sophisticated, and often highly original.Less
Duns Scotus, along with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, was one of the three most talented and influential of the medieval schoolmen, and a highly original and creative thinker. Natural philosophy, or physics, is one of the areas of his system which has not received detailed attention in modern literature. But it is important, both for understanding Scotus's contributions in theology, and in tracing some important developments in the basically Aristotelian world-view which Scotus and his contemporaries espoused. This book contains discussion and analysis of Scotus's accounts of the nature of matter; the structure of material substance; mass; the nature of space, time, and motion; quantitative and qualitative change; and the various sorts of unity which can be exhibited by different kinds of whole. It also includes discussion of Scotus's accounts of chemical composition, organic unity, and nutrition. Scotus's views on these matters are philosophically sophisticated, and often highly original.
Ronald L. Numbers
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320374
- eISBN:
- 9780199851379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320374.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter traces the history of what has come to be known as “methodological naturalism”, the bane of intelligent design advocates, who see it as an agent of atheism. Both Christians and skeptics, ...
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This chapter traces the history of what has come to be known as “methodological naturalism”, the bane of intelligent design advocates, who see it as an agent of atheism. Both Christians and skeptics, for different reasons, advocated this approach to studying nature. In fact, it was an evangelical theologian who coined the term and endorsed the methods associated with it. Nothing characterizes modern science better than its rejection of God in explaining the workings of nature. However, it would be wrong to conclude that the naturalization of science has secularized society generally.Less
This chapter traces the history of what has come to be known as “methodological naturalism”, the bane of intelligent design advocates, who see it as an agent of atheism. Both Christians and skeptics, for different reasons, advocated this approach to studying nature. In fact, it was an evangelical theologian who coined the term and endorsed the methods associated with it. Nothing characterizes modern science better than its rejection of God in explaining the workings of nature. However, it would be wrong to conclude that the naturalization of science has secularized society generally.
J. D. North
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199510122
- eISBN:
- 9780191700941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199510122.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter discusses the reason for the amplification of mathematical and other formal methods used in natural philosophy and astronomy. It explains that Oxford humanists' attacks which were so ...
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This chapter discusses the reason for the amplification of mathematical and other formal methods used in natural philosophy and astronomy. It explains that Oxford humanists' attacks which were so frequently generated from the standpoint of neo-Platonism resulted in the concealment of very similar trends in scholastic mathematics and natural philosophy. It discusses that the commentaries clarifying Oxford's significance in the evolution of medieval physics was bounded in time. This chapter also evaluates the central idea in hylomorphism. It argues that one of the more regrettable aspects of the entire medieval debate is that the supposed solutions were so often internally inconsistent. It explains that there were different attitudes to natural philosophy.Less
This chapter discusses the reason for the amplification of mathematical and other formal methods used in natural philosophy and astronomy. It explains that Oxford humanists' attacks which were so frequently generated from the standpoint of neo-Platonism resulted in the concealment of very similar trends in scholastic mathematics and natural philosophy. It discusses that the commentaries clarifying Oxford's significance in the evolution of medieval physics was bounded in time. This chapter also evaluates the central idea in hylomorphism. It argues that one of the more regrettable aspects of the entire medieval debate is that the supposed solutions were so often internally inconsistent. It explains that there were different attitudes to natural philosophy.
