The fall of man and the foundations of science
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The fall of man and the foundations of science
Cambridge University Press, 2007
- : hardback
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. 259-291
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Peter Harrison provides an account of the religious foundations of scientific knowledge. He shows how the approaches to the study of nature that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were directly informed by theological discussions about the Fall of Man and the extent to which the mind and the senses had been damaged by that primeval event. Scientific methods, he suggests, were originally devised as techniques for ameliorating the cognitive damage wrought by human sin. At its inception, modern science was conceptualized as a means of recapturing the knowledge of nature that Adam had once possessed. Contrary to a widespread view that sees science emerging in conflict with religion, Harrison argues that theological considerations were of vital importance in the framing of the scientific method.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Adam's Encyclopaedia
- 2. Augustine revived
- 3. Seeking certainty in a fallen world
- 4. Dethroning the idols
- 5. The instauration of learning
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index.
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