Overview
Can scientific explanation ever make reference to God or the supernatural? The present consensus is no; indeed, a naturalistic stance is usually taken to be a distinguishing feature of modern science. Some would go further still, maintaining that the success of scientific explanation actually provides compelling evidence that there are no supernatural entities, and that true science, from the very beginning, was opposed to religious thinking. Science without God? Rethinking the History of Scientific Naturalism shows that the history of Western science presents us with a more nuanced picture. Beginning with the naturalists of ancient Greece, and proceeding through the middle ages, the scientific revolution, and into the nineteenth century, the contributors examine past ideas about 'nature' and 'the supernatural'. Ranging over different scientific disciplines and historical periods, they show how past thinkers often relied upon theological ideas and presuppositions in their systematic investigations of the world. In addition to providing material that contributes to a history of 'nature' and naturalism, this collection challenges a number of widely held misconceptions about the history of scientific naturalism.
Full Product Details
Author: Peter Harrison (Australian Laureate Fellow; Director, Australian Laureate Fellow; Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland) ,
Jon H. Roberts (Tomorrow Professor of History, Tomorrow Professor of History, Boston University)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.40cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 24.10cm
Weight: 0.586kg
ISBN: 9780198834588
ISBN 10: 0198834586
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 17 January 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Peter Harrison and Jon H. Roberts provide a highly compelling alternative history of the sciences and their relation to naturalism that will be of direct relevance to contemporary philosophical arguments about the nature of scientific explanation and the enduring importance of religious belief. * Jamie Boulding, University of Leeds, Religious Studies * The book is an excellent source if one wishes to know anything about the religious and supernatural commitments and motivations of scientists over the course of the last 2,500 years. It deserves also to be noted that there is an impressive consistency in style throughout, with some of the authors even drawing parallels between their own arguments and those found in other chapters. * Tiddy Smith, Journal of the American Academy of Religion * This is a book for scholars with a serious interest in the relationship between religion and science. * C.G. Wood, CHOICE *
This is a book for scholars with a serious interest in the relationship between religion and science. * C.G. Wood, CHOICE *
Author Information
Peter Harrison is an Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland. He is the former Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. He has published extensively in the field of intellectual history with a focus on the relations between science and religion. His publications include The Bible, Protestantism and the Rise of Natural Science (1998) and The Territories of Science and Religion (2015). Jon H. Roberts is the Tomorrow Foundation Professor of History at Boston University. He has written a number of articles dealing primarily with the history of the relationship between science and religion, as well as the book Darwinism and the Divine in America: Protestant Intellectuals and Organic Evolution, 1859-1900, which received the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize from the American Society of Church History. He has also co-authored with James Turner The Sacred and the Secular University (2001).
